The presidential election is 5 weeks away. One candidate -- the 40-year-old libertarian-ish npub1k7n30y4jdru3pcfmfdph3eehyzf9xsra4axckgtas9wcly0ktvpsaghfvs (npub1k7n…hfvs) -- has little chance to win, but has created some enthusiasm among young people and those online.
He's been highly critical of a Supreme Court judge enmeshed in a corruption scandal, so today that judge just casually issued a decree barring him from continuing his campaign, claiming that he found "irregular" social media activity.
We've seen this more and more in "democracies": anti-establishment candidates who get any popularity just get banned (tried it with Marine LePen, reverse the Romanian election, and, of course, one of the main strategies of Dems in 2024 was to have Trump banned from all ballots). #Democracy
The Economist profiled him but then had to add a note saying his campaign was just banned:
https://bird.makeup/users/theeconomist/statuses/2094451423941394574
Renan Santos is polling in the single digits, but his willingness to propose bold ideas is winning him prominent backers on the Brazilian right https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2026/08/31/could-latin-americas-biggest-democracy-have-a-milei-moment?taid=6a95a183e7f74f0001fb60e0&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter