Sao Paulo, Brazil – Because the outcomes of Brazil’s October 30 presidential runoff rolled in, confirming a slender victory for left-wing icon Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, his far-right opponent was nowhere to be discovered.
Allies who sought to commiserate with defeated President Jair Bolsonaro had been reportedly informed that he had gone to mattress after the outcomes got here in, neither thanking his 58 million supporters nor congratulating the brand new president-elect.
This silence continued for nearly two days. Heads of state from america, France, Germany, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Italy had all congratulated Lula on his victory by the point Bolsonaro gathered the nation’s media for his first public post-election look.
In a curt speech lasting not more than two minutes, he didn’t acknowledge defeat and didn’t point out Lula’s title. As a substitute, he saluted small teams of putschist protesters who had gathered across the nation, calling for the navy to annul the election outcomes and hold Bolsonaro in energy.
Crucially, there have been some indicators of concession. After Bolsonaro vacated the lectern, his chief of employees, Ciro Nogueira, introduced that the president had given his approval to start the federal government transition course of. And earlier than starting his deal with to the media, Bolsonaro was heard saying: “They’re going to miss us.”
“Bolsonaro was by no means planning on conceding defeat,” Mario Sergio Lima, a senior Brazil analyst on the Medley Advisors consultancy, informed Al Jazeera. “At first, I believe he was genuinely surprised that he had misplaced, as he had surrounded himself with sure males and believed he was going to win. However after that, the extended silence was a approach to see if the avenue protest motion would choose up steam.”
Within the days following the vote, the countrywide protests by Bolsonaro supporters blocked main highways, as demonstrators brazenly referred to as for a navy coup.
“Bolsonaro has by no means abided by the principles,” political scientist Beatriz Rey, a visiting fellow at Johns Hopkins College, informed Al Jazeera. “He spent most of his presidency criticising the voting system; after all he wasn’t going to concede defeat.”
Balancing act
Bolsonaro had absolutely hoped that his years of makes an attempt to discredit Brazil’s electoral system would have led to extra widespread well-liked anger at his defeat. However whereas the demonstrations precipitated important disruption, even blocking entry to Brazil’s busiest airport at one level, their radical character and inadequate dimension shortly depleted their worth for the outgoing president, and he was compelled to ask protesters to filter.
Fabio Zanini, a political columnist on the Folha de S Paulo newspaper, described Bolsonaro’s behaviour as a “balancing act”.
“On the one hand, he can’t criticise the protesters straight, as a result of that will go towards every thing he’s defended all through his presidency,” Zanini informed Al Jazeera. “However on the identical time, he can’t affiliate himself with something too aggressive, comparable to freeway roadblocks, as a result of that would land him in authorized bother.”
The protests have since dissipated, though small teams are nonetheless holding vigils exterior navy barracks in main Brazilian cities.
Whereas Bolsonaro has not but given up the combat, pre-election predictions that he would barricade himself in workplace upon defeat ended up lacking the mark. His silence appeared to annoy a number of of his strongest elected associates, who urged Bolsonaro to concede.
“It doesn’t appear to be anybody purchased into the thought of a Bolsonaro-led coup,” Rey mentioned. “Because the election, the political system appears to be organising itself and returning to regular.”
Certainly, Bolsonaro’s technique of silence “definitely backfired to some extent”, Lima mentioned: “Bolsonaro has been deserted by nearly each institutional ally he had.”
‘Laborious to interchange’
On the age of 67 and with greater than three many years in politics, Bolsonaro confronted his first-ever loss on this election. Two years after being elected as a metropolis councillor for Rio de Janeiro within the late Nineteen Eighties, he received a seat within the federal Congress. He was re-elected six instances till making all of it the best way to the presidency as an unlikely far-right outsider in 2018.
“Bolsonaro doesn’t know what it’s wish to lose,” Zanini mentioned. “Perhaps that’s why he’s handled defeat so badly.”
The query that continues to be is what is going to develop into of the unconventional president, and the Brazilian far-right as a complete, now that he’s out of workplace. Crucially, dropping public workplace strips Bolsonaro of his parliamentary immunity. “There are many instances pending towards him, from throughout the pandemic, or in relation to organising anti-democratic protests, however he’s unlikely to be jailed as quickly as he leaves the presidency,” Zanini mentioned. “However it’s one thing he should watch out about.”
In the meantime, any suggestion that the outgoing president will slink into the shadows seems to be folly. Bolsonaro received greater than 58 million votes on October 30, the third-highest vote complete ever obtained by a Brazilian presidential candidate, even outstripping his personal efficiency in 2018.
In response to Zanini, “nobody can compete with Bolsonaro” on Brazil’s far proper, drawing a comparability to his US counterpart, Donald Trump.
“Trump got here out of the 2020 election because the supreme chief of the American proper and is now engaged on his candidacy for 2024,” he mentioned. “Bolsonaro will do the identical for the 2026 election, so he wants to carry on to that hegemony till then.”
There may be doubt, nevertheless, over whether or not the broader proper wing in Brazil will prohibit itself to Bolsonaro, or whether or not average factions will break free.
“There are incentives for the centre proper to maneuver away from Bolsonaro, as a result of he’s a unfastened cannon. They need somebody they will depend on,” Lima mentioned. “However, for the far proper, it might be arduous to interchange Jair Bolsonaro.”
