“We are on a mission to elect Bolsonaro against evil”, says Orley Antunes, who drove 12 hours to support the Brazilian president, among tens of thousands of other demonstrators, on Copacabana beach, in Rio de Janeiro. Janeiro.
“The election is on October 2, we have a month to fulfill this mission, to prevent Brazil from sinking like Argentina, Venezuela or other South American countries” governed by the left, says to AFP this 41-year-old teacher from the small town of Morrentes, in Parana, 850 km from Rio.
He is dressed in a yellow and green t-shirt, the colors of the Brazilian flag, like almost all the other demonstrators who responded to the appeal of the Head of State, for Bicentenary festivities of independence in the style of huge campaign rally in Rio, his electoral stronghold.
“This crowd is a show of force, to show what Brazil really wants. If the elections are clean, he will be elected in the first round, that’s for sure, ”insists Orley Antunes, despite the polls which give the head of state the loser against the left-wing ex-president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
“False” polls
On the sidelines of the military parade that launched the celebrations on Wednesday morning in Brasilia, Jair Bolsonaro told tens of thousands of supporters that the polls were “false”.
“If Bolsonaro loses and he admits his defeat, he will have to accept it. But if there is the shadow of a suspicion about the reliability of the ballot boxes, we will take to the streets again, “says this blond, green-eyed forty-year-old, who does not believe in episodes of violence in the event of contestation of the result.
“I, for example, have a weapon, but I didn’t take it today. »
One of the president’s sons, MP Eduardo Bolsonaro, had nevertheless invited on Monday on Twitter Brazilians who “bought a weapon legally” to volunteer in his father’s campaign.
Fernando César Alves, a 34-year-old dog trainer who also came to Copacabana, fully agrees with him. “I don’t believe in polls, I believe in what I see, this crowd gathered here,” said the young man, sipping a beer by the beach.
As protesters line the long promenade of Rio’s iconic beach, dozens of people on jet skis displaying Brazilian flags rev their engines past Navy vessels taking part in the official National Day parade .
“The army is at the side of the people, to send a message to the whole world! can be heard from one of the dozens of trucks broadcasting deafening messages through loudspeakers.
From the military fort of Copacabana, a salvo is fired from the cannon, like every hour since 8 a.m., startling some demonstrators, but then triggering thunderous applause.
President lookalike
“We are here because we don’t want communism in Brazil. Bolsonaro embodies the defense of the traditional family, of Christian values,” says Aline Giovanoni, an evangelical housewife who came with her 15-year-old daughter.
A few meters from her, a man with graying hair attracts all eyes. He is in a black suit, girded with a presidential scarf and looks like the head of state.
“We are here because we believe in the future of Brazil and we want to show that our president is the best”, declares this look-alike known as the “Bolsonaro de Recreio”, a seaside district in the west of Rio , where he lives.
Suely Ramalho, a 78-year-old real estate agent, supports Bolsonaro because he is “brave” and “afraid of nothing”.
“You have to see all the harm done to him, the media, the left, the Supreme Court. But I am confident. If there is no cheating, he will win in the first round, ”says this black woman with braided hair. She had voted for Lula in the past, then had been “tremendously disappointed”.