He remained silent for nearly two days after being beaten by leftist former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the vote. When Bolsonaro finally appeared on camera Tuesday afternoon, he failed to explicitly concede defeat or congratulate his victor. However, shortly after that appearance, he went to the supreme court where he met seven of its judges, including Edson Fachin, who later told reporters that Bolsonaro had indicated to them that he understood the writing was on the wall. “The president used the verb ‘end’ in the past tense,” Fachin said. “He said, ‘It’s over.’ Therefore, [one must] let’s look ahead.” In an interview with O Globo newspaper, Bolsonaro’s vice president, Hamilton Murao, made it clear that he had accepted defeat. “There’s no point in crying anymore, we’ve lost the game,” he said. Mourão also signaled his opposition to pro-Bolsonaro protests that have included hardline supporters blocking roads to demand a military coup, bringing traffic chaos to cities such as Rio and Sao Paulo. “There are 58 million people who are unhappy,” Mourão said of Bolsonaro’s voters. “But they agreed to take part in the game. So now they have to calm down.” Bolsonaro appeared to be sending a different message with his deliberately ambiguous two-minute speech on Tuesday. In it, the right-wing populist called the protests “the fruit of indignation and a sense of injustice about how the electoral process unfolded.” “Peaceful protests will always be welcome,” Bolsonaro said, although he said the destruction was not welcome. Some hardline supporters reportedly took these words as a call to stay on the streets. But the protests appeared to be winding down on Wednesday morning, with the federal highway police saying there were 167 roadblocks, down from 563 on Monday. Lula won Brazil’s most important election in decades by a margin of 2.1 million votes – 50.9% to 49.1% – and was quickly embraced by the international community after four years in which Brazil became a pariah under Bolsonaro. US Vice President Kamala Harris reportedly plans to attend Lula’s inauguration in the capital, Brasilia, on January 1. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak tweeted: “Congratulations… I look forward to working together on the issues that matter to the UK and Brazil, from growing the global economy to protecting the planet’s natural resources and promoting democratic values”.
