BRASÍLIA — Brazil’s President
Jair Bolsonaro
on Tuesday “authorized” the transition to a new government, without
acknowledging his defeat to leftist rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
اضافة اعلان
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
rightwing incumbent neither acknowledged defeat nor congratulated Lula on his
victory.
But microphones did catch the president saying
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 the 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.
Before his speech Tuesday, Bolsonaro had initially
remained silent even as key allies publicly recognized his loss, including the
powerful speaker of the lower house of Congress, Arthur Lira.
Crackdown on protests
Federal Highway Police (PRF)
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.
On Monday night, Judge Alexander de Moraes of the
Supreme Court 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 is the first incumbent president in Brazil
not to win re-election in the post-dictatorship era after a four-year term.
Lula scored 50.9 percent to Bolsonaro’s 49.1 percent
— the narrowest margin in Brazil’s modern history.
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