Brazil It finds itself unexpectedly in a crisis that is difficult to develop a few hours before the conclusion of Sunday’s elections won by the Social Democrat Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The elected president’s party attributed to direct blackmail of President Jair Bolsonaro his denial attitude about the results, an attitude that is triggering all kinds of unpredictable reactions.
Questioned even among his own allies for this behavior, the president did not immediately recognize the defeat he suffered in the elections and has not condemned the hundreds of roadblocks launched by the truckers, a radical and violent sector, fully aligned with the outgoing far-right president.
“Bolsonaro is blackmailing the country and it affects the transition” towards the new government, protested this Tuesday Paulo Teixeira, who is the general secretary of Lula da Silva’s Workers’ Party. “We cannot be aware of when he wants to talk, but he wants us to be aware to blackmail us,” he said in statements to the Italian agency ANSA.
The leader then clarified, without abandoning the tone of disgust, that Bolsonaro “may or may not speak out. Let him do it whenever he wants we are calm. We know what their behavior is like and their lack of commitment to democratic institutions.”
In a very astute move, the PT on Tuesday 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 truck drivers’ protests were harshly condemned by the Bolsonarista leadership in the state governments and even by the highway police, who had been denounced, even by the PT, for certain alliance with these manifestations.
There is also a strong discomfort growing over the president’s reluctance to admit defeat to such an extent that your own ministers are already starting the negotiations necessary for the transition with the new government.
Missing merchandise
This Monday, the president met with the Minister of Defense, General Paulo Sergio Oliveira, at the Alvorada residence in Brasilia to consider the serious issue of the blockades that are taking place shortage of merchandise in supermarkets and fuel at service stations and airports that have been forced, such as Guarulhos in São Paulo, to suspend dozens of flights.
It was not clear if 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, have hastily recognized the victory of the PT.
The outgoing governor of São Paulo, Rodrigo García, an ally of the president, guaranteed that “all the necessary force” will be used against the truckers, reminding them that “The elections are over” that “there is a result of the polls” and what there is “an elected president, who is Lula”.
In the same sense, another very influential associate of Bolsonaro, the governor of Minas GeraisRomeo Zema
The protest has also been unauthorized by the National Confederation of Transport, the employers’ chamber of the activity and by the formal unions of truckers, who have clarified that the movement is led by “small groups” of autonomous Bolsonarists.
That statement put the president himself at the center of speculation. According to conflicting data some 300 locks were clearedbut the information could not be immediately confirmed and it is not clear how many road closures there have been, although it is argued that the protest It has spread throughout almost the entire country.
there would be no message
The growing expectation about whether the president will give a message to the population acknowledging the results of the elections, which will contribute to ceasing the protests, seemed frustrated at these hours. The Secretary of Communications of the Presidency reported that that message is not planned at the moment.
In Minas Gerais, a state that Lula da Silva won, but where Zema renewed his mandate, a truck driver told a journalist that “we will not stop as long as we don’t get a response from our president.’
The man, who was wearing a green and yellow shirt, colors of the Brazilian flag and of the president’s conservative movement, affirmed that 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 that follow.”
In 2018, before Bolsonaro’s term, an 11-day truckers’ strike paralyzed Brazil, causing a skyrocketing food prices and left supermarket shelves empty of products while gas stations ran out of fuel.
That episode considered very little spontaneous, aggravated the crisis that the country was experiencing, strengthening the political position of the future president Bolsonaro. The protest caused multimillion dollar losses and revealed the great power truck drivers possess, particularly when organizing through social media.
Bolsonaro, a legislator at the time, was an outspoken supporter of the truckers, who became a central electoral base to take him to the presidency. This year, his administration capped interstate taxes on fuel to help lower prices and launched a financial aid program for drivers.
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