Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has asked his supporters to lift the road blockades that have been set up across several Brazilian states since last Sunday as a sign of protest against the victory of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the second round of the elections.
«I want to make a call to all of you, clear the roads,» Bolsonaro said in a video shared on his social networks in which he asserts that the road blockade is not, in his opinion, a legitimate form of protest.
In his recording, the president has reproached that the road blockade does nothing more than infringe on the constitutional right of free movement. «The closing of highways in Brazil harms the right of people to come and go, it is in our Constitution and we have always been within the four lines (of the Magna Carta),» he said.
Bolsonaro has acknowledged being «upset and sad» by the election result, but has advocated to keep «the head high», and demonstrate in the lines of the «democratic game», as are the protests in squares and other public spaces, and not on the roads.
