After 45 hours of self-imposed silence out of public view, the hard-right leader on Tuesday afternoon read a carefully worded speech that did not directly challenge the narrow victory of his leftist rival Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Sunday, as some opponents had feared. Pro-Bolsonaro protesters and truck drivers who say he unfairly denied their candidate a win have blocked hundreds of highways across the South American country, sparking fears of food shortages and prompting threats of a crackdown by the country’s Supreme Court. “The popular movements right now are the result of resentment and a sense of injustice about how the electoral process went,” Bolsonaro said in a brief speech from the Palácio da Alvorada, the official presidential residence in Brasilia, alluding to earlier complaints that Brazil’s top The electorate was biased against his campaign. “Peaceful demonstrations are always welcome, but our methods cannot be those of the left, which have always harmed the population,” he added. While the president did not explicitly admit defeat or mention Lula, his chief of staff, Ciro Nogueira, immediately confirmed that Bolsonaro had authorized him to begin the transition process with Lula’s team, which takes office on January 1. “As the president of the republic and a citizen, I will continue to fulfill all the mandates of our constitution,” Bolsonaro said. In a further departure from tradition, the former army chief did not call to congratulate Lula, who narrowly won the second round of the election with 50.9 percent of the vote to Bolsonaro’s 49.1 percent. Bolsonaro’s remarks ended two days of silence after the vote, which had left Brazilians and investors scrambling over what the mercurial incumbent might do next. However, it remained unclear whether Bolsonaro’s supporters would stop their protests. Calls for more demonstrations on Wednesday circulated on social media sympathetic to the president. While the capital Brasilia remained calm on Tuesday, the governors of five states, including the three most populous – Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais – ordered military police to reopen highways blocked by activists amid accusations that police of the national highway failed to clear the roads. For months before the election, Bolsonaro worked to cast doubt on the integrity of the race, arguing that Brazil’s electronic voting system was prone to fraud. Brazil’s top election official, Alexandre de Moraes, threatened to fine and jail the highway police chief if he failed to ensure the roads were cleared, and accused the protesters of being an “illegal movement” and a “national security risk”. Bolsonaro said Sunday’s result showed that “the right has really emerged in our country. Our strong representation in Congress shows the strength of our values: God, country, family and freedom.” “Bolsonaro is well placed to be the leader of the opposition, maybe even try to come back in four years. But for that to happen, it has to move forward,” said Eduardo Mello, professor of politics at the Getulio Vargas Foundation. Recommended Ignoring the protests and Bolsonaro’s refusal to recognize his victory, Lula has already assumed the mantle of president-elect, receiving congratulatory calls from world leaders and meeting politicians to discuss cabinet picks and early government priorities. A former president who served two terms between 2003 and 2010, the 77-year-old will rule a deeply divided nation. Millions of Brazilians remain angry over the corruption scandals that have marred successive administrations of his Workers’ Party (PT). Lula himself spent almost two years in prison for bribery before his convictions were overturned. Much of the focus is on who Lula will choose as his ministers. Investors hope he will signal his commitment to fiscal probity and economic orthodoxy by appointing a finance minister who enjoys the confidence of the markets, although Lula has insisted he will choose a politician, not a technocrat. In the running for the role are PT loyalists such as Fernando Haddad, who on Sunday lost the Sao Paulo gubernatorial election to Bolsonaro supporter Tarcísio de Freitas, and Alexandre Padilha, a former health minister. “In his victory speech, Lula said all the right things with his ‘we want to govern for everyone’ approach.” But from an economic point of view the main signal will be the choice of the finance minister,” said Marcos Kazarin, chief economist for Latin America at Oxford Economics. The president-elect is expected to expand the total number of ministries from 23 to 34, giving him more room to reward his coalition partners with government posts. Video: Brazil: a nation divided | Film FT
