Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro called on his supporters in a video message via Twitter to stop the barricades they have set up in different parts of the country.
You’re sad and I expected something different, and so am I. I am appealing to the protesters: clear the roads, Bolsonaro said. Bolsonaro said the roadblocks “do not appear to me to be part of legitimate demonstrations.” The far-right president has asked his supporters to demonstrate elsewhere. “Other demonstrations taking place in squares all over Brazil (…) are part of the democratic game. They are welcome.”
Bolsonaro supporters set up hundreds of roadblocks across the country to protest the election results. On Sunday, Bolsonaro lost the presidential election to his leftist rival and former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
As of Wednesday afternoon (local time), there were partial or complete roadblocks on 146 highways in 17 states, while 688 protests had already been broken up, according to the Federal Highway Police. More than 200 highways were closed Tuesday morning.
Some Bolsonaro supporters gathered outside army bases, calling on the military to intervene to reverse the official results. According to local news service G1, there were demonstrations in front of military installations in at least 24 states on Wednesday, including the Brasilia metropolitan area. Bolsonaro, a former army officer, enjoys strong support from the military, even though the constitution prohibits them from interfering in politics.
It was not clear at first whether Bolsonaro would accept his defeat in the election. But on Tuesday, two days after the election, he succumbed to the result in a very short speech. He said his supporters’ protests after the election stemmed from “anger and a sense of injustice” at the outcome.
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