Bolsonaro is hiding at the Hungarian embassy. Not for Asylum, He Says, Maybe Love.

When we first saw the surveillance footage, we were shocked.

There was the Hungarian ambassador to Brazil walking nervously in the embassy. There was Jair Bolsonaro, the former Brazilian president – just out of court orders not to leave the country an intensifying criminal investigation – arrived at the door. There were embassy staff members who approached the guest quarters with sheets and a coffee maker.

And then, for two days, there was Mr. Bolsonaro walking in the parking lot, looking tired, and there were his security guards bringing pizza.

Given the circumstances – a politician facing a potential prison sentence in a foreign embassy controlled by a political ally – he had all the characteristics of a man seeking political asylum. Foreign embassies can be considered sovereign territories and have historically been used as shelters for people fleeing custody.

My colleagues and I published an article saying so, complete with clips from the footage.

In response, Mr Bolsonaro’s lawyers released a statement saying he had only gone to the embassy to talk about politics. Any suggestion otherwise, they said, was “fake news.”

Alexandre de Moraes, the judge of the Brazilian Supreme Court leads extended criminal investigations in the former president, then decided that Mr. Bolsonaro he had not broken the law to sleep at the embassy.

So when I sat down with Mr. Bolsonaro for an interview this weekI was eager to finally ask why – in the middle of Brazil’s carnival, four days after the police confiscated his passport – he had decided to sleep in the small guest room of the Hungarian Embassy.

Here is an excerpt from our exchange, translated from Portuguese and edited for clarity.

Why sleep at the Hungarian Embassy for two nights?

Look, it was a time zone question I was talking to. And this is final.

But did you sleep there two nights?

Yes.

Is it normal?

It’s up to me to decide.

Don’t you have a bed in Brasilia? (Brasília is the capital of Brazil).

I do. I can fight with my wife. I don’t say. Like when I talk to the authorities, I don’t say that I did it. Nothing escapes me. Zero.

Have you slept in another embassy?

Who knows? I am friend with Israel. I am satisfied with the countries in the Arab world. I won’t say what I do because it gives them a narrative to pursue. I am a free citizen.

The team of Alexandre de Moraes they wanted to arrest me because I went without a passport. You do not need a passport to enter the embassy.

I am a private citizen. I am also a former president who speaks about the importance of truth. So it’s natural to want to understand why you slept in a foreign embassy four days after the authorities searched your home.

They can arrest me during the search if they want. Everything I do is an attempt to hide for them. Was it a shelter? Asylum? With asylum, it deals directly with the president.

Was it an offer for asylum? It seems strange to sleep in an embassy.

Isn’t it strange that I am persecuted? All I could say, the other party could go after me. I met with (President Viktor Orban of Hungary) in Argentina at the inauguration of (President Javier) Milei. I feel good with him.

It was not a crime what I did. If there had been a crime, they would have arrested me.

(Embassy surveillance footage also showed a person visiting Mr. Bolsonaro for 38 minutes. A Brazilian media outlet. reported later it was his son, Charles. Carlos was in the room with us.)

Carlo, you visited your father, didn’t you? What happened?

Carlos Bolsonaro: I just talked to my dad about…

(The attorney in the room interrupts to ask to speak off the record).

Jair Bolsonaro: Do you think I would have trouble leaving Brazil now? No passport? Don’t a ton of illegal immigrants go to the United States? I am an army captain. I’m used to the difficulties out there.

OK. So why were you at the embassy?

Who knows? Maybe I have a lover here.

I’m not trying to be difficult, but I care about the truth, and you say it too. So I just want to understand.

It’s a secret. Maybe one day you will find out.