Almost a week after the elections, the situation is gradually unblocking. Roadblocks erected in Brazil by protesters refusing to accept the electoral defeat of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro had all but disappeared on Friday, with only a few dozen hardliners still protesting outside the barracks.
The latest count by the Federal Highway Police (PRF) showed only five roadblocks in two of the country’s 27 states, and none of them completely blocked vehicle traffic.
“No federal highway is obstructed by a blockade,” the PRF said on its social networks.
Since Jair Bolsonaro’s defeat by leftist icon Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Sunday’s presidential election, the PRF says it has lifted 975 roadblocks across Brazil, a country of continental dimensions.
smooth transition
The movement began to lose steam on Wednesday, after the broadcast of a video of the head of state calling on his followers to “clean the roads.”
The National Confederation of Industry had warned on Tuesday of the “imminent risk of shortages”, particularly of fuel, if the roads remained blocked.
However, Jair Bolsonaro described as “legitimate” the demonstrations in front of barracks and other places of military command, which brought together tens of thousands of people in a dozen Brazilian cities on Wednesday.
These far-right protesters demanded the intervention of the army to prevent Lula from returning to power for a third term, after having governed the country from 2003 to 2010.
President Bolsonaro never explicitly acknowledged his defeat, much less congratulated Lula on his election, but promised to “respect the Constitution.” The names of the ministers of the future Lula government will be announced soon.
Source: BFM TV
