In a brief statement to reporters at the presidential palace in Brasilia on Tuesday afternoon, Bolsonaro did not refer to his defeat in Sunday’s runoff or concede defeat to Lula, but thanked his supporters for their support. “I have always been called anti-democratic and unlike my accusers, I have always respected the framework of the Constitution,” he said. “As the President of the Republic and as a citizen, I will continue to respect all the mandates of our Constitution.” Taking the podium after Bolsonaro’s speech, his chief of staff, Ciro Nogueira, said the president had “authorized” a transition process to Lula’s government. Bolsonaro was narrowly defeated on Sunday, garnering 49.1 percent of the vote to Lula’s 50.9 percent, becoming the first sitting president to lose a re-election bid in Brazil’s post-dictatorship era. For months, he had falsely claimed the country’s electronic voting system was vulnerable to fraud – a claim dismissed by judicial experts but which raised fears the former army chief could be preparing to challenge the result. Many of Bolsonaro’s key political allies had already publicly recognized Lula’s victory, putting pressure on him to do the same. Some, including Nogueira, have begun reaching out to the Lula camp to discuss a transition, while others, including the president of the lower house of the National Congress, have said publicly that the Bolsonaro government must respect the election result. Reporting from Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday, Al Jazeera’s Monica Giannaccio said “it was a very, very long wait and a very short statement” from Bolsonaro, “but he used the statement to project himself as a leader of the conservative right in Brazil”. . Lula had criticized Bolsonaro for not immediately conceding defeat or calling him after the election results were announced on Sunday night. “Any other place in the world, the defeated president would have called me to acknowledge his defeat,” he said in his victory speech in Sao Paulo.
Road closures
While Bolsonaro had remained silent – both in public statements and on social media – many of his supporters set up road blockades in anger at his defeat. Brazilian truckers, a key Bolsonaro constituency, have used burning tires and vehicles to block key routes across the country since Monday, including the international airport in Sao Paulo, forcing several flight cancellations. Demonstrators wearing the yellow and green of the Brazilian flag, which the outgoing president has adopted as his own, chanted slogans and held up banners bearing Bolsonaro’s image. Supporters of Bolsonaro, mainly truck drivers, block a highway in Curitiba, Parana state, November 1, 2022 [Rodolfo Buhrer/Reuters] “We will not accept to lose what we have won. We want what is written on our flag, “order and progress”. We will not accept the situation as it is,” 45-year-old Antoniel Almeida told AFP news agency at a demonstration in Barra Mansa, Rio de Janeiro state. During his brief speech, Bolsonaro described the protests as the fruit of “outrage and a sense of injustice” over the vote. He said protesters should avoid damaging property or “obstructing the right to come and go.” Brazil’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Federal Highway Police to take “all measures” to clear the blockades, warning it would fine the force’s director general if it failed to act. The executive director of the highway police, Marco Antonio Territo de Barros, told reporters that there were 267 road blocks and that 306 had already been dispersed as of Sunday. “It’s a complex undertaking, involving more than 75,000 kilometers of federal highways,” he said. Al Jazeera’s Yanakiew said Brazilians have become increasingly upset about the blockades. “Daily life is being disrupted and there is absolutely nothing to be gained because you can’t just overturn an election result by bringing the country to a standstill,” he said earlier in the day. “People say it’s time to accept defeat.” Meanwhile, Lula has jumped into action to tackle a long list of priorities, including strengthening state agencies tasked with protecting Brazil’s environment and indigenous lands, as well as uniting a deeply polarized nation. The head of Lula’s Workers’ Party, Glazey Hoffmann, said on Tuesday that Brazil’s Vice President-elect Geraldo Alckmin will coordinate the transition to the next government, which is expected to take office on January 1. That process aims to begin Thursday, Hoffman said. He also said he would discuss the transition again with Nogueira, Bolsonaro’s chief of staff.
