Italian lawmaker seeks probe into Bolsonaro brothers' citizenship grants

Italian lawmaker Angelo Bonelli, from the Europa Verde party, has requested an administrative investigation into the recognition of Italian citizenship for Flávio, Eduardo and Carlos Bolsonaro. He sent questions to Italy's Foreign and Interior ministries asking about the speed of the procedures and possible differences in treatment compared with other Brazilians awaiting nationality recognition.

The move follows Flávio Bolsonaro's departure from Argentina to the United States on Wednesday, October 28, using an Italian passport. The senator traveled after failing to comply with a Federal Police order to hand over his travel documents, which led to the cancellation of his Brazilian passport.

“When the brothers' processes were concluded in 2023, applicants were still waiting from 2018.”

Flávio and Eduardo received Italian citizenship recognition in 2023, while Carlos obtained it in 2024. The requests were based on the principle of jus sanguinis, which allows nationality recognition by descent. The family reportedly cited a great-grandfather of Jair Bolsonaro from the Veneto region in northern Italy as their ancestor.

According to dates previously provided by the Italian government to Bonelli, Flávio and Eduardo applied for recognition at the Italian Embassy in Brasilia nine days after Jair Bolsonaro lost the 2022 presidential election to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Bonelli says the processes for Flávio and Eduardo were completed in about one year, a timeframe he considers unusual given the backlog of Brazilians waiting at Italian consulates. Although the law sets a maximum limit of 730 days after complete documentation is submitted, waiting for a consular summons in Brazil can take up to ten years.

The document states that when the brothers' processes were concluded in 2023, applicants were still waiting from 2018. Consular calls to continue procedures were suspended for nearly four years between 2018 and 2022. In 2018, more than 112,000 requests submitted in Brazil were awaiting service, according to data cited by the lawmaker.