The celebrations for Bicentenary of the Independence of Brazil began Wednesday in Brasilia with a military parade and a cheering of thousands for Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who decided to give it a clear electoral nuance to the celebrations.
“Our freedom is at stake,” Bolsonaro said at Palazzo Alborada, his official residence, before heading to the Esplanade dei Ministeri, a central boulevard in Brasilia led by a military civic procession in commemoration of 200 years of the country’s independence from Portugal.
The statement was interpreted as a message to his followers ahead of the October 2 elections, in which he aspires to re-election against former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silvawhich leads all the polls and supports a broad progressive front.
Bolsonaro, dressed in the presidential sash, accompanied by his wife Michelle and a group of children, crossed the Esplanade of Ministries in a Rolls Royce “Silver Wraith” without a top. donated to Brazil by Queen Elizabeth II of England in 1953.
On the way to the presidential grandstand, he was cheered by an audience estimated at about 40,000 peoplemostly aligned with the far right led by the president, as the opposition decided to leave the streets in Bolsonaro on this national date, in order to avoid confrontations in a polarized environment.
When Bolsonaro launched his re-election campaign on July 24, he asked his supporters “one last” show of support Independence Day. “Those few deaf people in black robes have to understand what the voice of the people is,” she said, referring to the judges.
The National Guard will strengthen security around the Supreme Court building on Wednesday and police will search people at checkpoints around the esplanade where the military parade and mass demonstration will later take place.
Since his campaign began, Bolsonaro softened the tone on Independence Day. Last week, in the southern city of Curitiba, he told his supporters to remove a banner calling for a military coup. And in a TV commercial released on Tuesday, he urged people to participate in the bicentennial “in peace and harmony”.
Down in the polls against Lula
According to polls, about three weeks before the elections, the far-right leader intends to vote 30%, against the 45% that Lula would getwhich has already ruled the country between 2003 and 2010.
The presidents of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, participate in the civic-military parade; and from Guinea Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, and from Cape Verde, José María Neves, two countries that were also Portuguese colonies.
After the presentation of the troops and the institutional ceremony, Bolsonaro designs a political act in the Esplanade of the Ministriesand then he will travel to Rio de Janeiro, where he will hold an election rally in front of thousands of supporters.
Source: EFE and AP
Source: Clarin
