Brazil He unexpectedly finds himself in a crisis that hardly develops a few hours after the conclusion of Sunday’s elections won by the Social Democrat Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The party of the elected president attributed to direct blackmail President Jair Bolsonaro’s attitude of denial of results, an attitude that is triggering all kinds of unpredictable reactions.
Even questioned among his own allies for this behavior, the president did not immediately recognize the defeat he suffered in the elections and did not condemn the hundreds of roadblocks launched by truckers, a radical and violent sector, fully aligned with the outgoing far-right president.
“Bolsonaro is blackmailing the country and affects the transition ”to the new government, protested on Tuesday Paulo Teixeira, general secretary of Lula da Silva’s Workers’ Party. “We cannot know when he wants to speak, but he wants us to be aware in order to blackmail us,” he said in statements to the Italian news agency ANSA.
The leader then clarified, without abandoning his tone of disgust, that Bolsonaro “may or may not speak. Let him do it when he wants we are calm. We know what their behavior is and their lack of commitment to democratic institutions ”.
In a very cunning move, on Tuesday the PT appointed Vice President-elect Geraldo Alckmin, a conservative politician highly respected by the center and center-right political and economic sectors, to coordinate the transition.
The protests of the truckers were harshly condemned by the Bolsonarian leadership in the state governments and even by the traffic police, denounced, also by the PT, for certain alliance with these events.
There is also a strong unease that grows with the president’s reluctance to admit defeat to such an extent your own ministers are already starting negotiations necessary for the transition with the new government.
Missing goods
This Monday the president met with Defense Minister General Paulo Sergio Oliveira at the Alvorada residence in Brasilia to examine the serious issue of the ongoing blockades shortage of goods in supermarkets and fuel at service stations and airports which, like Guarulhos in Sao Paulo, have been forced to suspend dozens of flights.
It was unclear whether the meeting was called by the president or at the suggestion of that portfolio due to the growing tension in the country where all political levels, including the high command of the Armed Forces, hastily acknowledged the victory of the PT.
The outgoing governor of São Paulo, Rodrigo García, ally of the president, has guaranteed that “all the necessary force” will be used against the truck drivers, reminding them that “The elections are over” that “there is a poll result” e That there is “an elected president, which is Lula”.
In the same sense, another very influential collaborator of Bolsonaro, the governor of Minas GeraisRomeo Zema
The protest was also not allowed by the National Confederation of Transport, the Chamber of Employers of the Activity and the formal truckers’ unions, which have made it clear that the movement is led by “small groups” of autonomous Bolsonarians.
That statement put the president himself at the center of speculation. According to conflicting data about 300 locks have been cleanedbut the information could not be immediately confirmed and it is not clear how many roads were closed, although it is claimed that the protest It has spread to almost the whole country.
there would be no message
The growing expectation if the president will give a message to the population by acknowledging the election results, which will help to stop the protests, he seemed frustrated in these hours. This was reported by the Secretary of Communications of the Presidency that message is not scheduled at the moment.
In Minas Gerais, it was won by Lula da Silva, but where Zema renewed his mandate, a truck driver told a reporter that “we will not stop until we get a response from our president. ‘
The man, who wore a green and yellow jersey, colors of the Brazilian flag and the president’s conservative movement, said the election was “fraudulent” and warned, quoted by the AP agency, that there will be more protests.
“We want Bolsonaro in 2023 and for the years to follow”.
In 2018, prior to Bolsonaro’s tenure, an 11-day truckers strike paralyzed Brazil, causing a skyrocketing food prices and left supermarket shelves empty of produce while gas stations ran out of fuel.
That episode considered very little spontaneous, aggravated the crisis that the country was going through, strengthening the political position of the future president Bolsonaro. The protest caused multimillion-dollar losses and revealed the great power of truck drivers, particularly when organizing through social media.
Bolsonaro, legislator at the time, was an outspoken supporter of the truck drivers, which they became a central electoral base to bring him to the presidency. This year, his administration capped interstate fuel taxes to help cut prices and launched a financial aid program for drivers.
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Source: Clarin
