Thousands of followers of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro have culminated this Sunday the assault on the institutions that they have been demanding in the streets for more than two months. The headquarters of the Congress, the Presidency and the Supreme Court have been assaulted by those calling for a military intervention and the deposition of a leader, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, whose legitimacy they do not recognize.
The breeding ground for what has happened this Sunday derives from the past electoral process, when Bolsonaro and Lula faced each other in two rounds for a Presidency that the former understood could only be his. Thus, he agitated, without evidence, suspicions of electoral fraud and kept an unprecedented silence when the polls closed on October 30 and the ballot boxes did not prove him right.
There was less than two points difference between the two candidates and the outgoing president obtained 58.2 million votes, more than those obtained four years before, which showed to what extent he was still a popular leader among a wide sector of voters; either because they were convinced of his ultra-conservative dogmas or because of animosity towards Lula and all that the Workers’ Party (PT) represents.
Bolsonaro’s silence after the closing of polling stations gave rise to a wave of protests marked by road blockades. It took several days for the outgoing president to commit himself to begin the transition, although he did so with a small mouth and without openly acknowledging that he had been defeated -he still does not do so to this day.
Lula promised that in the early stages of his mandate he would take measures against those who still refuse to recognize his victory, at a time when groups of ‘bolsonaristas’ continued to demand in front of the barracks a potential intervention of the Armed Forces. Operations have also been carried out to dismantle alleged violent plans.
Bolsonaro himself left the country before the change of command on January 1, in a rant that local media attributed to possible fear of a possible measure against him. He traveled surrounded by advisors to Florida, where he remains to this day, and has shown no signs of returning anytime soon.
TRUMP’S SHADOW The choice of Florida as an occasional destination did not seem casual, given that that is where his friend and political ally Donald Trump has his mansion. Now, the similarities between Bolsonaro’s and Trump’s speeches rise to a new level, since it is followers of both leaders who have made attacks on Congress within two years of each other.
If on January 6, 2021 hundreds of ‘Trumpistas’ stormed the Capitol to question the electoral victory of Democrat Joe Biden, this January 8, 2023 it has been the ‘Bolsonaristas’ who have tried to take political justice into their own hands, although in this case with coordinated attacks against other institutions in Brasilia.
As then, there has also been silence on the part of the main instigator of these mobilizations, either by action or omission. Bolsonaro did try to disassociate himself before leaving Brazil from terrorist plots attributed to some radical sympathizers, but he also criticized the desire to demonize his political base. These were his last statements, made on December 30 and via the Internet.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
