(Brasilia) Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro broke the silence on Friday after 40 days of silence by expressing his “sickness” following his electoral defeat against Lula at the end of October.
“I was silent for almost 40 days. It hurts, it hurts the soul. I have always been a happy person among you, even risking my life in the crowd,” the far-right president told supporters outside the Alvorada Palace.
“Some point to my silence. A few weeks ago, if I had gone out to say “hello”, everything would have been distorted, modified”, he justified.
Jair Bolsonaro has remained silent and almost absent from the public space since his narrow defeat in the presidential election against Lula on October 30, 50.9% to 49.1%.
He participated in only one official event on November 26 at a military school.
After the defeat of their candidate, thousands of bolsonarists blocked roads and demonstrated in front of military barracks to demand that the army prevent Lula from taking power on 1er January.
Jair Bolsonaro said on Friday that “the armed forces are essential in all countries of the world, [elles] are the ultimate bulwark against socialism”.
“The people are the ones who decide their destiny,” he said.
“You decide my future, where I’m going from. You are the ones who decide where the armed forces go from,” he added, adding that “we are living at a crucial moment, a crossroads.”
With the handover approaching, the next President Lula has already named five future ministers: Fernando Haddad to Finance, Mauro Vieira to Foreign Affairs, Flavio Dino to Justice, Rui Costa to Casa Civil (halfway between the Prime Minister and the Chief of Staff) and José Mucio Monteiro at Defence.