Brazil’s Congress on Thursday overrode President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s veto of a law that will significantly reduce former president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup after his 2022 election defeat, handing Lula a major political defeat at a sensitive moment in his presidency. Lawmakers approved the override by 318 to 144 in the Chamber of Deputies and 49 to 24 in the Senate, sending the measure into effect despite Lula’s effort to block it.
Bolsonaro, 71, was sentenced in September 2025 to 27 years and three months in prison after Brazil’s Supreme Court convicted him of orchestrating a coup attempt to remain in power. Congress had first passed the sentence-reduction bill in December, and Lula vetoed it in January, arguing there was overwhelming evidence of Bolsonaro’s role in the plot. Reuters reported the new law is expected to cut his sentence to just over two years, though any final recalculation will still depend on the courts.
The measure also benefits other defendants linked to the coup case and dozens convicted over the January 8, 2023 riots in Brasília, when Bolsonaro supporters stormed government buildings in scenes widely compared to the 2021 U.S. Capitol attack. Bolsonaro denies wrongdoing and says he is the target of political persecution, an argument echoed by many of his supporters.
The vote marks Lula’s second major institutional setback in two days. On Wednesday, Brazil’s Senate rejected his Supreme Court nominee Jorge Messias, the first rejection of a president’s top court nominee in 132 years, according to AP. Together, the defeats underscore Lula’s shrinking leverage in a conservative-leaning Congress as Brazil heads toward presidential elections later this year.
