Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has privately told members of the Supreme Court that the country’s hotly contested election is “over”, according to local media reports, two days after the far-right leader was defeated by Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Bolsonaro broke nearly 48 hours of public silence on Tuesday afternoon, telling reporters he would respect Brazil’s Constitution but did not concede or congratulate his leftist rival. After a private meeting with Bolsonaro later that day, Supreme Court Justice Louise Edson Facin said the former army chief had said: “It’s over. Well, let’s look ahead.” The justice made the comment in a video broadcast by local media. Bolsonaro’s silence – both in public statements and on social media – had fueled concerns that he might seek to challenge the results, especially after he had falsely claimed for months that Brazil’s electronic voting system was vulnerable to fraud. But in a very brief speech on Tuesday from the presidential palace in Brasilia, Bolsonaro said: “As President of the Republic and as a citizen, I will continue to respect all the mandates of our Constitution.” His chief of staff then took to the podium and said Bolsonaro had “approved” the transition to Lula’s government, which will be sworn in on January 1. The president-elect won 50.9 percent of the vote compared to Bolsonaro’s 49.1 percent in Sunday’s runoff, ending what has been described as the most divisive presidential campaign in Brazil’s history. Lula, who previously served as president from 2003 to 2010, now faces the difficult challenge of uniting a deeply polarized nation. “We are telling the world that Brazil is back,” Lula tweeted on Tuesday night, pledging to tackle hunger, inequality and the climate crisis. “This is the Brazil we will build together. With work, dialogue and democracy”. While Bolsonaro’s team has acknowledged that a transition will take place, many of his supporters are blocking roads across Brazil in anger at his defeat by Lula. Crowds of Bolsonaro supporters – including Brazilian truckers, a core constituency of the outgoing president – have used burning tires and vehicles to block major routes since polls closed on Sunday, vowing not to accept Lula’s return to the presidency. The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Federal Highway Police to lift the blockades, threatening fines if it did not act quickly. The force said protesters had partially or completely blocked highways in 156 locations since Wednesday morning, up from about 190 the night before. Blockades were reported in 15 Brazilian states, mainly in Bolsonaro’s strongholds of Santa Catarina and Mato Grosso. Although smaller than in previous days, the protests are still disrupting fuel distribution, meat production, food deliveries to supermarkets and grain shipments to ports. Anvisa, the national health agency, warned that they could lead to shortages of medical supplies. During his speech on Tuesday, Bolsonaro said the protests were the result of “outrage and a sense of injustice” over the way the vote was conducted. He said people should refrain from damaging property or “obstructing the right to come and go,” but stopped short of asking them to end the blockades. Thousands of Bolsonaro supporters have called on the military to keep him in power. They gathered in the rain outside the Eastern Military Command in Rio de Janeiro, one of the army’s eight regional headquarters. Some chanted “Armed forces, save Brazil!” and “United, the people will never be defeated!” Bolsonaro’s supporters have blocked major roads in anger over the election results [File: Roosevelt Cassio/Reuters]
