Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Thursday he was “certain” that Jair Bolsonaro was the mastermind behind the attack on government buildings in Brasilia on January 8, and that he was thus seeking to carry out a “coup “.
“Today I am aware and I say it loud and clear: this citizen (former President Bolsonaro) prepared the coup,” Lula said in an interview with local television channel RedeTV!
On January 8, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters, unhappy with Lula’s victory over his far-right rival in the October 2022 presidential election, invaded and vandalized the presidential palace, Congress and the Supreme Court.
A Brazilian judge has decided to include the ex-leader, who left Brazil for Florida at the end of December, in the investigation which aims to determine who is behind the ransacking of Brazilian institutions.
“I am sure that Bolsonaro actively participated in this and is still trying to participate,” added Lula, when asked about the role of the former president in these events.
“They wanted to make this mess on the 1er January, but they realized they couldn’t do it because there were too many police and too many people on the streets,” Lula added.
These declarations intervene the same day as those of the senator Marcos do Val, who assured to have taken part in a meeting with the ex-president where it was a question of preventing the coming to power of Lula.
The senator told several Brazilian media on Thursday that he had been entrusted during this meeting with the mission of secretly recording a conversation with the president of the Superior Electoral Court, Alexandre de Moraes, a pet peeve of the Bolsonarists.
According to him, the idea was to try to incriminate him with compromising remarks and thus call into question the October election which saw Lula win by a short head over the far-right incumbent (50.9 % versus 49.1%).
Marcos do Val, who was interviewed by Federal Police on Thursday evening, originally told the magazine Veja that Mr. Bolsonaro had presented this plan to him.
But he later changed his version, saying that the ex-president had remained “silent” during the meeting and that the idea had been presented to him by a far-right deputy. He specified that he had refused to carry it out.
A re-election not ruled out
According to his lawyers, Jair Bolsonaro has applied to extend his six-month visa to stay in the United States. He denies having any connection whatsoever with the events of January 8.
“We have defeated Bolsonaro, but we still have to defeat Bolsonarism,” President Lula also said in the interview on local TV.
Lula, 77, also mentioned the possibility of a new candidacy in 2026.
Contrary to comments made several times on this subject during the election campaign, he did not completely rule out this possibility on Thursday evening.
“Today, I would say no. […] But if the time comes the situation is delicate and I am in good health… I could only be a candidate in perfect health, at 81 years old, but with the energy of a man of 40 and the desire of my 30 years”, he concluded.