in São Paulo, Jair Bolsonaro’s voters “can’t get used to this result”

At the crossroads of a shopping street in Mooca, a middle-class and wealthy neighborhood in the east of São Paulo, two friends sat at the counter of a “lanchonete”, a typical fast food place in Brazil. Guilherme Fullmann and Cayo Regonato, residents of the area, chat and have a snack on this October afternoon, the day after the presidential election.

“You found the two men most annoyed by the situation”, immediately loose Guilherme Fullmann, even evoking the idea of ​​an upcoming departure to Florida (United States) or Australia. Their president, Jair Bolsonaro, was narrowly defeated by his rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silvacollecting 49.1% of the vote against 50.9% for the returning left-wing president.

“So many people who voted for Lula… We are inconsolable”entrusts Guilherme Fullmann, the imposing stature. “I’m disappointed. The people of the south [du Brésil, où Jair Bolsonaro a réalisé ses meilleurs scores] don’t accept it.” Sitting next to him, his friend Cayo Regonato shares everything he says. “It’s outrage”confides this bolsonarist taken “despair” when the results are announced on Sunday evening.

The two men alone sum up the feelings of many voters in this booming district, between disgust at the accusations of corruption that have targeted Lula, doubts about the reliability of the election and deep disappointment. In Mooca, the hope of a new victory for the far-right president was in the majority: Jair Bolsonaro won 58.5% of the vote there, one of its best scores in the country’s largest city, according to the newspaper Folha de São Paulo (in Portuguese).

In this busy street of Mooca, a district where large residential buildings overlook simple colorful houses, Bolsonarism is present in (almost) all the shops. “I can’t get used to this result”, breathes Luciano Bazan Pinheiro, a 48-year-old mechanic, his hands immersed in grease. Jair Bolsonaro “is less worse than the others” policies, according to this Brazilian who wanted at all costs to prevent Lula’s return to power. “I no longer had a job when he was in power” in the 2000s, he says. “With Bolsonaro, the level of work had returned to the time of Cardoso”, the predecessor of the re-elected left-wing ex-president.

Near these shops, Eduarda came to pick up her two children in front of the neighborhood elementary school. This 27-year-old Brazilian sales representative describes herself as “frustrated and very sad” after the outcome of the ballot. “We are right-wing entrepreneurs. The government that awaits us is a danger”judges the resident with large round glasses. With Jair Bolsonaro, “we had tax facilities, much more than under the Workers’ Party (PT)”, Lula’s movement, she says. “With him, we pay taxes even to breathe.”

In Mooca, the Bolsonaro vote is both a vote of deep conviction and rejection – that, massive, of Lula, after his time in prison for passive corruption and money laundering. Charges he has always denied. His conviction was overturned and Operation Lava Jato, which revealed a huge bribery scandal involving many Brazilian politicians, presented serious dysfunctions and facts of collusion. Regardless, these voters remember only one thing: the 580 days of incarceration of the leftist leader, between April 2018 and November 2019.

“I’m a bit upset, because Lula and the PT have a huge history of corruption”, confides Mauricio Miranda, having lunch in a vast shopping center in the Mooca district. His vote for Bolsonaro is first linked to “the history of Lula, to his corruption record”insists this 69-year-old retiree. “We find a corrupt president”, adds his wife Ivani, a retired teacher.

A few tables further, two retired spouses, Miriam Alves Gabi and José Gabi, also voted against corruption rather than for the former soldier. “Bolsonaro is not ideal, but at this moment, to see Lula come back with all his gang… I am extremely disappointed”, says Miriam, 72 years old and a former architect. Their situation has not changed under the Bolsonaro presidency, but with Lula, “I worry about my sons and my grandsons if the corruption continues”. “It’s a mafia behind Lula, it’s terrible”, accuses her husband José.

Miriam and José have their doubts about the reliability of Sunday’s result, as their candidate has “insisted” during the campaign unfounded, on possible fraud during electronic voting. José Barbosa, he no longer needs to be convinced. For this employee of a grocery store in Mooca, “Yes of course, the election was stolen”. His proof? “You only met Bolsonarists” in the neighborhood.

When asked about his fears for Lula’s next term, the Brazilian replies confidently that the re-elected leader “will not assume the presidency on January 1”. Because according to him “pno one accepts the result”. The 50-year-old, a cigarette in his hand, says to himself “ready for everything” for “defend [son] vote” and promises to demonstrate. He goes so far as to mention the risk of a “civil war” by January.

A little further down this street, Luiz Eduardo fears that chaos will emerge in Brazil, “with this discontent of the population”. He too, finding Lula guilty of corruption, voted for Jair Bolsonaro, and he too has his doubts about the reliability of electronic voting. But “I can’t say anything about fraud because I can’t prove it”, tempers this cafe manager, “forced to accept the result”. Will the majority of Bolsonaro voters and the president himself, silent since Sunday evening, do the same?