RIO DE JANEIRO.- Thousands of supporters of the former president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonarogathered this Sunday in Copacabana, south of Rio de Janeiro, in a demonstration called by the far-right that was marked by religious speeches, attacks on the president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and the Federal Supreme Court (STF), and messages in favor of freedom of expression.
Concentrated since early Sunday morning on the tourist coast of Copacabana, thousands of fans attended dressed in Brazilian national team shirts, wrapped in Brazilian flags or with their colors. They attended 32,700 people, according to the calculation of the political debate Monitor research group.
The images transmitted by the organizers showed the beaches of Copacabana filled with thousands of followers of the former far-right leader, who had called on social networks to the “peaceful” act, without signs. “We have never been so close to a dictatorship. We will not give up on Brazil. God, Country, Family and Freedom”, had published on X (previously Twitter).
Bolsonaro, 69, who went on stage with speakers installed in a truck, was accompanied by his wife Michelleone of the first to speak, as well as numerous parliamentarians and political allies, in addition to the evangelical pastor Silas Malafaia, promoter of the event.
The confrontation between the minister dominated much of the statements between the public and Bolsonaro. Alexandre de Moraes, president of the Superior Electoral Court, and tycoon Elon Musk, owner of X and a figure close to Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro said that Musk “preserves freedom” of expression to denounce censorship by the justice system and called on his followers to “fight” to defend that right.
Musk “is a man who really preserves freedom for all of us,” and who “had the courage to show, with some evidence (…) where our democracy was going, how much freedom we have already lost,” Bolsonaro said in front of the emblematic Copacabana beach.
At Bolsonaro’s request, the crowd waved Brazilian flags and enthusiastically applauded the owner of platform He called him a “dictator.”
In the name of combating disinformation, Moraes ordered the blocking of user accounts on internet platforms, including X, especially after attempts to Bolsonaro supporters to discredit the voting system during the last electoral campaign.
Bolsonaro denounced “a dictatorship” and called on his supporters to “continue the fight” to defend freedom of expression, “threatened” in Brazil.
“I came to fight for my freedom of expression because we no longer have that right. The Supreme Federal Court passed all the limits (…) It is not because of a party or a person”said Daiana Mesquita, 38.
After Musk’s attack, Moraes ordered to investigate him as a suspect of “criminal instrumentalization” of platform The fight between the two extended to the entire political and legal sphere in Brazil.
“It goes against the will of the people and, therefore, democracy”Musk posted against Moraes on his X account.
Other members of the high court spoke in support of De Moraes, while the Brazilian president, the leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, maintained in a recent event, without referring to Musk directly, that “If I could, I would make a decree to prohibit lying” and “imprison anyone who lies.”
Moraes, who has multiplied his public speeches these days, affirmed on Friday that the Brazilian justice system is used to “fighting foreign mercantilists who treat Brazil as a colony.”
In parallel, the Public Defender’s Office asked the court that platform 1 billion reais (192 million dollars) in compensation for collective moral damage and social damages to Brazilaccording to the local press.
Agencies AFP, ANSA and newspaper The globe