CNN
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Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro stated Tuesday that he would “continue to fulfill all the commandments of our constitution” in a brief speech on the presidential palace in Brasilia, after days of silence following his election loss to the leftist former chief Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
He didn’t explicitly concede defeat, although the occasion appeared to sign his intention to cooperate with the switch of energy.
Taking the rostrum after the President, chief of workers Ciro Nogueira stated that he would work with the brand new authorities and is ready for Lula da Silva’s transition workforce to start the handover.
“President Jair Messias Bolsonaro authorized me, when it is time, based on the law, to start the transition process,” Nogueira stated.
Notably, Bolsonaro’s temporary tackle didn’t contest the vote end result. Instead, he thanked those that voted for him and hit out at critics. “I have always been labeled undemocratic and, unlike my accusers, I have always played within the four lines of the constitution,” he stated.
He didn’t congratulate Lula da Silva, who gained with 50.9% of the vote, whereas Bolsonaro gained 49.1%.
The President-elect acquired essentially the most votes in Brazilian historical past – greater than 60 million votes, breaking his personal document from 2006 by virtually two million votes, in accordance with the election authority’s last tally.
Hear what Lula stated after narrowly beating Bolsonaro
Bolsonaro’s preliminary silence had contributed to fears that he wouldn’t cooperate with the switch of energy, after making unfounded claims previous to the vote about electoral fraud.
While his speech on Tuesday was brief, specialists speculated the explanations to why he kept away from explicitly conceding or contesting the election end result.
“Bolsonaro wants to maintain this illusion that he was wronged, and that’s why he lost. He wants to show strength and in the culture of this movement, admitting you lost is to show weakness,” Brian Winter, the editor in chief of Americas Quarterly, informed CNN.
“By saying that he’s going to respect the Constitution and by discouraging violence at some of the protests that have been happening, I think that (Bolsonaro) essentially paves the way now for a relatively normal transition,” Winter stated.
Bruna Santos, a senior advisor on the Wilson Institute’s Brazil Center, stated Bolsonaro was doubtless pondering of the long-term way forward for his motion.
“Bolsonarismo is a strong opposition force and got even stronger after this election despite Bolsonaro’s loss,” she stated.
In the final legislative elections, Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party elevated its representatives within the decrease home from 76 to 99, whereas within the Senate it doubled from seven members to 14. Though Lula da Silva’s Workers’ Party has additionally elevated illustration in each homes, conservative-leaning politicians will dominate the subsequent legislature total.
Brazilian lawmakers and a few Bolsonaro allies have already acknowledged Lula da Silva’s win. Brazilian Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco publicly congratulated Lula da Silva and his supporters, as has Chamber of Deputies President Arthur Lira – a detailed Bolsonaro ally.
Some pro-Bolsonaro Telegram teams appeared to take encouragement from Bolsonaro’s speech, which described ongoing protests as “the result of indignation and a feeling of injustice at how the electoral process took place.”
CNN noticed messages from supporters lauding Bolsonaro for not accepting defeat, and inexperienced lighting protests.
“He didn’t recognize the defeat! He didn’t greet his opponent! He reaffirmed his respect for the Constitution! Let´s go out to the streets, more than ever, safe and certain!” one consumer wrote.
Protesters have wreaked havoc on the nation’s highways since Sunday. Brazil’s freeway police stated Tuesday morning that protesters had blocked roads at 267 factors throughout the nation.
The freeway police company itself has confronted criticism inside Brazil over its response, after movies circulating on Brazil’s social media appeared to point out officers telling protestors that they’d not disrupt or shut down their protests.
In a press convention on Tuesday morning, freeway police government director Marco Antonio de Barros defended his company’s actions, saying clearing the roads was a “complex operation.”
“Groups of up to 500 protesters, with children on their laps, elderly are participating in it. So the PRF had to act with plenty of caution,” he stated, utilizing an acronym for the highways company.
Highway police normal inspector Wendel Matos added the establishment doesn’t help the protests or the shutdown of federal highways, and that any potential breaches of protocol had been being investigated. “Sometimes two or three officers speak or act in a way that is incompatible with our orders. We are investigating if there has been any misconduct by those officers,” Matos stated.
After Bolsonaro spoke, Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court stated that it was vital to emphasise the “President of the Republic’s speech in guaranteeing the right to come and go in relation to blockades, and, when determining the beginning of the transition, in recognizing the result of the elections.”
President-elect Lula da Silva has not commented on the protests, although he expressed disappointment on Sunday night at Bolsonaro’s preliminary failure to concede.
The chief of Lula da Silva’s Worker’s Party, Gleisi Hoffman, stated on Tuesday that the celebration was assured protests wouldn’t intervene with the eventual switch of energy. “We trust Brazilian institutions,” she stated.