Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday authorized the transition to a new government after his defeat to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Bolsonaro, 67, broke two days of silence after his razor-thin loss to Lula on Sunday, which sparked protests from his supporters across the country and fanned fears he would not accept the outcome.
In a speech that lasted just over two minutes, the incumbent neither acknowledged defeat nor congratulated Lula on his victory.
Photo: AFP
However, the president said before his speech with a smile: “They are going to miss us.”
Bolsonaro started by thanking the 58 million Brazilians who voted for him, before saying that roadblocks erected by his supporters across the country were “the fruit of indignation and a feeling of injustice at how the electoral process took place.”
“Peaceful protests will always be welcome,” he said.
Photo: AFP
“As president of the republic and a citizen, I will continue to comply with our constitution,” he said, before handing the podium to his chief of staff, Ciro Nogueira, who said Bolsonaro had “authorized” the “start of the transition” process.
Lula’s Workers’ Party on Tuesday said that his vice president-elect, Geraldo Alckmin, would lead the transition process, which would begin today.
Lula is to be inaugurated for his third term as president on Jan. 1.
Bolsonaro’s speech capped two days of tensions over how he would respond to such a narrow loss after months of alleging fraud in the electoral system.
“Anyplace else in the world, the defeated president would have called me to recognize his defeat,” Lula said in his victory speech to red-clad supporters in Sao Paulo on Sunday.
Before his speech on Tuesday, Bolsonaro had initially remained silent even as key allies publicly recognized his loss.
Federal Highway Police on Tuesday reported hundreds of total or partial road blockades across the country by truck drivers and pro-Bolsonaro supporters.
By nightfall, they said they had dispersed about 490 protests, but that about 190 demonstrations and partial road blockades remained.
Protesters wearing the yellow and green of the Brazilian flag, which the outgoing president had adopted as his own, said they would not accept the outcome of the election.
“We will not accept losing what we have gained, we want what is written on our flag — ‘order and progress,’” Antoniel Almeida, 45, told reporters at a protest in Barra Mansa, Rio de Janeiro. “We will not accept the situation as it is.”
On Monday, Brazilian Supreme Court Judge Alexander de Moraes ordered police to disperse the blockades immediately.
He was acting in response to a request by a transport federation that complained it was losing business.
Bolsonaro became the first incumbent president in Brazil since 1985 not to win re-election after a four-year term.
Bolsonaro used his brief speech to reflect on his time in office and said the victory of a majority of right-wing candidates in the Brazilian Congress “shows the strength of our values: God, homeland, family and liberty.”
“Our dreams are more alive than ever. Even in the face of the system, we overcame a pandemic and the consequences of a war,” Bolsonaro said, referring to Russia’s war against Ukraine.
“I was always labeled undemocratic and unlike my accusers, I always played within the limits of the constitution,” he said.
The post-election drama follows a dirty and divisive election campaign between Bolsonaro and Lula, who returns to office in a dramatic comeback.
Brazil’s president between 2003 and 2010, Lula crashed into disgrace in a corruption scandal that landed him in jail before his conviction was thrown out due to bias from the lead judge.
However, he was not exonerated.
The election outcome showed just how polarized the country is between the two leaders.
Lula scored 50.9 percent to Bolsonaro’s 49.1 percent — the narrowest margin in Brazil’s modern history.
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