Brazil bicentennial becomes campaign rally for Bolsonaro
BRASILIA, Brazil — Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro transformed the nation’s bicentennial Wednesday into a multicity campaign event, but didn’t use his appearances to undermine the upcoming election as his opponents had feared.
Bolsonaro, who trails former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in polls before the Oct. 2 vote, drew tens of thousands of supporters to rallies in Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro. The armed forces put on military displays in the cities, with the president attending.
Bolsonaro has stacked his administration with military officers and repeatedly sought their support, most recently to cast doubt on the reliability of the nation’s electronic voting system, which raised fears his speeches on Independence Day would be filled with fresh attacks. The far-right nationalist held back from doing so, and instead focused on attacks against da Silva.
Bolsonaro compared da Silva to autocratic leftist leaders in Venezuela and Nicaragua and called Brazil’s former president “a gangster.”
“We will have a much better administration with us being elected, with the grace of God,” Bolsonaro said in a speech in Rio.
His prior efforts to sow doubt about the voting system has prompted widespread concern among his opponents that he may follow former U.S. President Donald Trump ‘s footsteps in rejecting election results.
Bolsonaro arrived at the military display in Brasilia accompanied by at least one of the business executives who allegedly participated in a private chat group that
included comments favoring a possible coup and military involvement in politics, and who is being investigated by Federal Police for possibly financing anti-democratic acts.
The crowd, decked out in green and yellow, chanted against da Silva, who wants to return to the post he held in 2003-2010. Speaking at a rally afterward, Bolsonaro made no reference to Brazil’s struggle for independence and instead focused on his achievements while his supporters made it clear they came to support their candidate.
“We came for democracy, we want a free country, with no corruption or robbing, we want a country with clean elections,” said farmer Marcelo Zanella, 46, who drove about 500 miles to Brasilia from the state of Tocantins.
Tens of thousand demonstrators also gathered on Sao Paulo’s main downtown boulevard.
Due to a downpour and the fact Bolsonaro wasn’t scheduled to appear, turnout was apparently smaller than last year’s.
Later, Bolsonaro attended another military display in Rio along Copacabana beach — where his supporters often hold demonstrations. It entailed rifle salutes, cannon fire, flyovers,
paratroopers and warships anchored offshore. He delivered his speech from a sound truck, on the back of which a draped banner read: “CLEAN AND TRANSPARENT ELECTIONS.”
Bolsonaro, a former army captain and lawmaker for decades before winning the 2018 presidential election, has spent most of his first term locking horns with Supreme Court justices, some of whom are also top members of the electoral authority.
He has accused some judges of hamstringing his administration and favoring da Silva. That has effectively turned those figures and their institutions into enemies for Bolsonaro’s base.
When Bolsonaro launched his reelection bid July 24, he asked supporters for “one last” show of support on Independence Day.
Carlos Melo, a political science professor at Insper University in Sao Paulo, said Bolsonaro needed to energize his campaign and reach out to undecided voters.
“He needed something new and failed to do that. Bolsonaro once more only spoke with his supporters, indeed many of them, and by that he might be closing the gap for other voters to join him,” Melo said.