He will have waited almost two days. Current Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, loser in the October 30 presidential elections against his rival Lula (49.1% versus 50.9% of the vote), finally spoke on Tuesday November 1 from the Presidential Palace in Brasilia (central Brazil) . “We are more alive than ever,” he said in a whirlwind speech in which he did not clearly admit defeat.
After thanking the millions of Brazilians who voted for him, Jair Bolsonaro preferred to take a quick look at his tenure. “We have overcome a pandemic and the consequences of a war,” he said, referring to the Covid 19 crisis and the conflict in Ukraine. He then spoke of a “feeling of injustice” regarding the election process, but did not comment on the election result and did not congratulate Lula.
“As a citizen and as President, I will always abide by the rules of the Constitution,” he stated simply before leaving his desk without answering questions from the press. It was the outgoing president’s chief of staff, Ciro Nogueira, who then confirmed that he would begin the presidential transition process “to respect the law of the country.”
Jair Bolsonaro’s speech was awaited by both his supporters and Lula’s camp, eager to start the work of “cooperation”. The long silence of the outgoing president, more used to controversial statements on social networks, surprised the Brazilian press, which scrutinized his every move. On Monday, one of his sons, Flavio, broke the family silence by thanking his father’s supporters “who gave their sweat for the country and gave Bolsonaro the biggest voice of his life”. “Let’s not let our Brazil down!” he had started on Twitter.
During his speech, Jair Bolsonaro defied the roadblocks that paralyzed several axes in Brazil on Tuesday. “The right is against these methods,” he said. According to the Federal Road Police (PRF), 250 road closures, total or partial, have been reported in at least 23 of Brazil’s 27 states. In the state of Santa Catarina (in the south of the country), where Jair Bolsonaro received almost 70 percent of the vote on Sunday, the situation is still very confused. It records the largest number of closed roads.