Renan Santos enters Brazil presidential race with R$ 795,000 asset declaration

Renan Santos, the co-founder of the influential right-wing Free Brazil Movement (MBL), has launched his first-ever campaign for public office, running for president of Brazil in 2026. Santos is representing Missão, a newly created political party also making its electoral debut.

As a first-time candidate, Santos was required to declare his personal wealth to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE). Filings show he has declared R$ 795,089 in assets. Because he has never run for office before, there are no historical electoral filings to compare his current wealth against, and his tax returns remain confidential under Brazilian law.

What is in the asset declaration?

The filings present a relatively vague picture of Santos’s finances, listing just four main items with few details:

• R$ 300,000 listed as "outros cr ditos e poupana vinculados" (other credits and linked savings), with no detail on who owes the money.
• R$ 275,329 classified as assets linked to independent professional activities.
• R$ 119,760 in various corporate stakes.
• R$ 100,000 in corporate capital quotas.

None of the corporate entities or debtors are named in the public TSE filings, and the declaration lists no real estate, vehicles, or bank accounts under separate categories.

Who is Renan Santos?

The 42-year-old activist, businessman, and musician from So Paulo rose to prominence in 2014 when he helped found the MBL. The movement played a central role in the street protests that led to the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff in 2016.

While the MBL backed Jair Bolsonaro in his successful 2018 presidential run, the group fell out with his administration in 2019, turning Santos into a frequent target for Bolsonaro’s base. Today, Santos is pitching himself as an anti-system candidate, framing his campaign as an alternative to both the current president, Luiz In
cio Lula da Silva, and the Bolsonaro family. He is currently polling between 3% and 6%, placing him in a technical tie for third place with several other candidates, including Romeu Zema and Ronaldo Caiado.

Because Misso is a new party, Santos has no guaranteed television or radio advertising slots. He has instead taken to the road, campaigning on social media and driving between Brazilian cities to target younger voters.

"Arrested or dead": the platform

Santos has adopted a hardline security platform inspired by Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador. His campaign has even sold merchandise featuring his slogan: "prendeu, matou" (arrested, killed).

During a media interview, Santos defended the phrase. "If you are a criminal, you have only two options under my government," he said. "Either you will be arrested, or if you react, you will end up dead or hurt."

Santos wants to classify Brazil's dominant drug gangs, the Comando Vermelho and the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), as terrorist organisations and strip their members of standard judicial rights. He has proposed spending R$ 6 billion on new prisons and invoking a constitutional "state of defence" to bypass regular legal procedures.

His wider platform, published in his party's "Yellow Book," includes:

• A "de-favelisation" programme to grant land titles in 12,000 informal settlements.
• Cutting government spending to stabilise national debt, which his party claims could save R$ 1.1 trillion by 2031.
• Uncoupling mandatory spending floors for health and education.
• Developing a nuclear weapon to increase Brazil's international standing.

Past controversies

Santos’s political career has not been without controversy. His closest political allies have frequently made headlines, most notably Arthur do Val, a fellow MBL co-founder. Do Val was stripped of his state assembly mandate in 2022 after leaked audio revealed him making derogatory remarks about female Ukrainian refugees, claiming they were "easy because they are poor."

The leaked audio also claimed Santos took annual trips to Europe, dubbed the "tour des blondes," to meet women. Santos has described the comments as private and highly inappropriate, but defended his colleague by noting that do Val had paid the political price by losing his office.