The still Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, left this Friday for the United States, two days before the inauguration ceremony of Lula da Silva as head of state, during which he was to hand over the presidential sash to his successor.
“I’m on a flight, I’ll be back soon,” Bolsonaro said, in a brief statement to CNN Brazil.
According to the local press, the presidential plane, with Jair Bolsonaro, his wife, Michelle, and some aides took off at 2:02 p.m. (5:02 p.m. in Lisbon) bound for Orlando, in the United States.
Thus, from today until the inauguration of Lula da Silva, on Sunday, the vice president, Hamilton Mourão, assumes command of the country.
The inauguration ceremony is marked by the moment in which the outgoing president hands over the presidential sash to his successor, a symbolic gesture that has been respected by all presidents since Brazil regained democracy in 1985, after 21 years of dictatorship. .
Neither Bolsonaro nor the government gave details about the trip, but, according to sources from his personal environment cited by the local press, his intention is to spend at least three months outside the country.
The local press says that Bolsonaro should stay in a complex in Palm Beach, owned by former US President Donald Trump.
Before leaving, Bolsonaro, in a last live broadcast on his social networks, in his last moments at the official presidential residence -Palácio da Alvorada, in Brasilia-, urged his followers to stand firm against Lula da Silva.
“We are not going to believe that the world ends on January 1” with the assumption of Lula, Bolsonaro declared between sobs and asked his followers “not to throw in the towel or stop opposing him”, although peacefully and inside of the constitutional framework.
“We are not going to believe that the world ends on January 1,” Bolsonaro said, referring to the inauguration of Lula da Silva, at a ceremony this Sunday in Brasilia.
“Brazil will not succumb, believe it (…) The battle is lost, but we will not lose the war,” defended the outgoing Brazilian president.
“Nothing here in Brasilia justifies this attempted terrorist act at the Brasilia airport. Nothing justifies it. An element that was caught, thank God, with ideas that are not in the line of any citizen. Now it is massed about the type as bolsonarista all the time”. It’s the way the press treats,” Bolsonaro added, referring to a supporter who tried to blow up a fuel truck, but ended up detained by the police.
In a statement that lasted just over an hour, Bolsonaro did not fully acknowledge his defeat in last October’s elections or congratulate Lula da Silva – something that had never happened until now – and insisted that he was a victim of electoral justice. which, in his opinion, favored the president-elect with several decisions.
Bolsonaro reiterated that his freedom and that of the far-right groups that support him had been limited and that they were prevented from denouncing the failures that, as he insists on saying without presenting any evidence, occurred in the electronic voting system used. in the country Brazil since 1996.
Without mentioning Lula da Silva by name, the Brazilian president stated that “the new government that is coming will create many problems” and will “impose a disastrous ideology on the country that has not worked anywhere in the world.”
Source: TSF
