‘Armed forces, you must save Brazil! Soldiers, intervene now! Help us, because the elections have been stolen!” Alexandra Soares screams her lungs out and stands with a few thousand other Brazilians in front of the Palácio Duque de Caxias in Rio, where the regional military command center is. She is holding a sign saying ‘Down with the Communists’. “Democracy is in danger! Lula belongs in jail, he can’t be our president,” she yells, wiping the sweat from her face.
It is hot in the center of Rio and a diverse group of people have gathered for the demonstration. A week after the tense and polarized elections, outraged supporters of President Bolsonaro demonstrate against the victory of leftist leader and ex-president Luiz Inácio ‘Lula’ da Silva.
Lula won by less than 2 percent from his arch-rival and far-right leader Bolsonaro. Since then, it has been anything but quiet in Brazil and the bolsonaristas to accept the result. Angry truck drivers blocked roads in several states for days, threatening the supply of food to the cities. Only after the threat of heavy fines and penalties for the truck drivers and after Bolsonaro called on them to stop the blockades were they lifted. Thousands of Bolsonaro supporters took to the streets in various cities, both Wednesday on All Souls Day (a day off in Brazil) and this weekend.
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‘Tampering and fraud’
When the first notes of the Brazilian national anthem sound from the loudspeaker of a balloon-decorated car, Laura Pio places her hand on her chest and starts singing along with passion. Her eight-year-old daughter stands next to her and also sings along. “It’s also about her future,” Pio says emotionally and points to her child.
“There has been cheating, look,” and she shows a document on her phone with what she believes are the results of a number of cities. “What do you see behind Bolsonaro? Zero votes! That is impossible. Bolsonaro has won votes everywhere, there has been fraud!”
She has received the information through app groups like Telegram, where the supporters send each other information and call for demonstrations. Bolsonaro shared his disappointment with the result in a Facebook live broadcast on Thursday. “Like you, I am disappointed,” he said, visibly moved. He called on his supporters not to block roads, but encouraged them to demonstrate peacefully and especially en masse.
Polarization in Brazil has grown rather than diminished after the elections
This message to his followers followed Bolsonaro’s brief statement two days after the results. At first he had remained silent. He did not suggest that the election results would be wrong or ask for a recount, even though there was only a narrow margin of two million votes between him and Lula. That initial silence was striking, especially since Bolsonaro’s political allies, including his vice president and the speaker of parliament, immediately recognized the result. The governors of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, also political allies, immediately recognized Lula’s gains. From abroad, US President Biden and French Prime Minister Macron reacted almost immediately to the result, which according to Brazilian analysts contributed to Bolsonaro being stuck: although he would have openly doubted the result: he had no supporters left.
“Everyone has let Bolsonaro down, but we haven’t,” shouts Joana Leite, who sells hot dogs and tries to get through the crowd with her cart. “He will always be our president.”
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genie out of the bottle
After repeated statements by Bolsonaro that he would not accept a loss, there were fears of a coup – he has been shouting for years that the army is behind him. Such an intervention by the army is what these supporters prefer to see – just like a military coup d’état in Brazil in 1964, when a left-wing leader was democratically elected. That was the beginning of a military dictatorship that lasted until 1985.
Such a military coup does not seem an option now. Bolsonaro may have a following in the military as an ex-army captain and have placed thousands of people with military backgrounds in government posts, but the military, like business, mainly benefits from stability.
Bolsonaro’s years of attack on institutions such as the Supreme Court, the Electoral Tribunal and Congress seem to have taken the genie out of the bottle with his supporters. As Lula and Bolsonaro employees begin the transfer of power in Brasilia in the coming week – officially not until January 1, 2023 – Bolsonaro’s supporters have announced more protests, and strikes. “We’re going on strike on Monday,” says Marcelo Freitas, who works at a large covered market in Rio.
The polarization has not diminished a week after the elections and may even have increased. In the quality newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo housing tenants complained that their rent had been canceled after the landlord found out they had voted for Lula.
The intolerance for Lula voters can also be felt at the Bolsonaristas this Sunday. “I don’t want any contact with my sister for the time being, who voted for Lula. We don’t talk to each other,” says Alexandra Soares, waving her flag once more.