Planalto aide shared false claim about Brazil's patron saint

Planalto communications aide George Marques reposted a message on Friday urging followers to keep circulating a false claim that presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro plans to remove Our Lady of Aparecida's title as Brazil's patron saint. The original post explicitly advised against sharing retractions so the misinformation would reach voters in the North and Northeast. Marques deleted the repost hours later.

Electoral Minister André Mendonça ordered the removal of posts attributing the false proposal to Bolsonaro and his family. The senator has never presented such legislation. Marques told Poder360 he read the post but does not agree with it, saying any share was an involuntary error on his personal account.

“Stop sharing the retraction. Let the subject roll. They did this in other elections and almost screwed us. Keep sharing that Our Lady was attacked, it needs to reach the interior of the Northeast, the interior of the North.”

Flávio Bolsonaro's campaign filed a criminal complaint with the Electoral Prosecutor's Office seeking Marques' preventive arrest and seizure of his electronic devices. Lawyers argue he deliberately spread a known lie to 211,800 followers after the TSE had debunked it. The complaint also cites additional reposts accusing Bolsonaro of persecuting the Catholic Church.