Brazil’s President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s team is set to meet the camp of outgoing leader Jair Bolsonaro to discuss the political transition, as pro-Bolsonaro protests and highway blockades begin to dissipate. Lula’s vice-president-elect, Geraldo Alcmin, a former governor of Sao Paulo tapped to lead the transition process, will hold talks with Bolsonaro’s chief of staff, Ciro Nogueira, on Thursday in the capital Brasilia. Nogueira told reporters this week that Bolsonaro had “approved” the transition. The far-right leader said Tuesday he would respect Brazil’s constitution, but did not concede the election or congratulate Lula on his victory in Sunday’s runoff. Lula, who previously served as president from 2003 to 2010, secured 50.9 percent of the vote to Bolsonaro’s 49.1 percent. He is the first sitting president of Brazil to lose a re-election bid in Brazil’s post-dictatorship era. Bolsonaro remained silent for almost 48 hours after the results were announced, sparking concerns that the former army chief could be planning to challenge the results. For months, he had falsely claimed that Brazil’s electronic voting system was vulnerable to fraud, and rights groups and international observers had warned of possible anti-democratic actions should Bolsonaro lose to Lula, as most polls predicted. But many of Bolsonaro’s top allies were quick to recognize Lula’s victory, and world leaders also congratulated Brazil for holding “free, fair and credible elections.” “All of Bolsonaro’s escape valves were closed,” Brian Winter, a longtime Brazil expert and vice president of the New York-based Council of the Americas, told The Associated Press. “He was prevailed upon on all sides not to dispute the results, and to burn the house on his way out.” However, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters took to the streets this week to protest the vote. Many called on the Brazilian armed forces to intervene to prevent Lula from taking office on January 1. Truckers, a key Bolsonaro constituency, have blocked key roads across the country, especially in the outgoing president’s strongholds of Santa Catarina and Mato Grosso. Vice President-elect Geraldo Alckmin to lead government transition for Lula’s team [Adriano Machado/Reuters] Protesters partially or completely blocked highways in 76 locations in eight of the country’s 26 states as of Thursday morning, up from 126 previously, according to Brazil’s Federal Highway Police. Access to the port of Paranagua, one of Brazil’s most important for grain exports, was no longer blocked Thursday morning, authorities also said. Bolsonaro late on Wednesday called on his supporters to end the blockades, saying in a video on social media that the protests were legal but the barricades were restricting people’s right to come and go and hurting the economy. “Everyone is suffering from the closed roads. I ask you to clear the streets and protest elsewhere,” Bolsonaro said. He had previously said the protests were a result of “outrage and a sense of injustice” over the way the vote was conducted.
