issuing time:
Brazil’s presidential election victory or defeat has been decided, the National Electoral Commission determined that Lula won the election, Bolsonaro lost the election. But Bolsonaro has yet to react even the slightest. He has not spoken since the results were announced while the whole world congratulated his opponent. In Brazil, where the democratic culture is still fragile, the atmosphere is suddenly very tense, as supporters of the defeated candidate Bolsonaro want to stop it with all their might.
Brazil: Bolsonaro keeps silent after Lula win The silence was like a bomb.
Evangelical pastor Damares Alves, Jair Bolsonaro’s former ultra-conservative minister for human rights, families and women, has acknowledged his candidate’s defeat in the presidential election. Also, the head of state’s partner, First Lady Michel Bolsonaro, also subtly set a “like” to a post on social media by a Bolsonaroist influencer acknowledging Lula’s victory Respond to express.
On Sunday night, Jornal de São Paulo wrote that some of the outgoing president’s allies had ruled out questioning the official result of the election, with Bolsonaro receiving 49.1 percent of the vote. However, the champion of Brazil’s nationalist right himself has remained silent. Bolsonaro’s Twitter account has been shut down. When his supporters prayed to God for him in the streets of Brasilia, he didn’t even go to meet them. Bolsonaro gave no indicative message to his supporters.
According to Brazilian media reports, Bolsonaro stayed with his eldest son Flavio in the presidential palace Alvorada on the night after the election. He had secret talks with his running mate, General Walter Braga Neto. According to Liberation, he spoke by phone with Alexandre de Morais, the head of the Superior Electoral Tribunal responsible for informing him of the results. But on the other hand, the outgoing president refused to speak to others, including ministers.
In the evening, media reports said that the president, who will remain in office until January 1, 2023, had gone to “sleep.” Then, when he woke up on Monday, he was back at the Palazzo Planto like any other day.
An AFP photographer noted that he did not make a timely statement. But our correspondent in Sao Paulo, Martin Bernard, said he met again with his running mate.
The victor, Lula, was “worried” and regretted that the losing candidate didn’t call him in the traditional way. Others pointed out that Bolsonaro didn’t even thank his 58 million-plus voters.
But truckers supporting Bolsonaro were mobilized. Bolsonaro misses military dictatorships and dislikes electronic voting. But shortly before the election, he had promised to recognize the result: “Whoever has the most votes wins. That’s democracy.”
So his silence in the wake of the U.S. Capitol incident did not reassure Lula’s supporters at a time when presidential election results showed the young democracy had never been more divided.
In the early hours of this morning, Brazilian truckers set up roadblocks in at least 11 states and Brasilia, including highways between Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil’s two largest cities. Some 236 demonstrations in Brazil’s 20 states partially or fully blocked roads on Monday night, according to authorities. During the day, some were calling for a coup.
Rumors abounded throughout Brazil on Monday.