After 40 days, President Jair Bolsonaro broke silence on Friday, saying Lula da Silva’s defeat in the presidential election “hurts the soul”.
“I have been silent for almost 40 days. It hurts, it hurts in the soul. I have always been a happy person among you, I even risked my life among the people,” Bolsonaro said when speaking to supporters for the Palacio da Alvorada, in Brasilia.
“Some talk about my silence. If I left here a few weeks ago and said good morning, everything would be distorted, everything would be distorted,” he justified.
The president was silent and had almost no public agenda after Lula won the second presidential round, on October 30, by a slim margin of 50.9% to 49.1%.
Since then, Bolsonaro has attended his first official event at a military academy on November 26.
After the defeat, thousands of supporters blocked roads and protested in front of military barracks, asking for the intervention of the armed forces to prevent Lula’s January 1 inauguration.
Bolsonaro this Friday believed that “the armed forces are essential in every country in the world (…), they are the last obstacle to socialism”.
The president also said that “it is the people who determine fate”. “Who decides my future, where I go, is you. Who decides where the armed forces go, is you,” he added, pointing out that “we are living at a crucial moment, a crossroads”.
Lula da Silva has already announced the first five ministers of his cabinet: Fernando Haddad for Finance, Rui Costa for Civil House, Flávio Dino for Justice and Public Security, José Múcio Monteiro for Defense and Mauro Vieira for Foreign Affairs.
Source: DN
