The Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, intensified this Saturday his attacks on the Judiciary and reaffirmed that "only God" can remove him from power, when there are four months and twelve days to go before the elections in which he will seek a re-election that seems complicated, according to the polls.
"Together, with faith, we will achieve our goals. It is a mission that I have and only God gets me out of that chair (presidential)"said the president before hundreds of evangelical faithful during the so-called ‘March for Jesus’, in the city of Curitiba (south).
In a pre-campaign climate, the far-right leader said that it is his "should" as head of the Executive to ensure that everyone who acts "out" of what the Constitution establishes, "come inside it".
"Our army is the Brazilian people"said Bolsonaro, second in voting intentions behind former progressive president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva with a view to the presidential elections on October 2.
Before, he participated in a meeting with evangelical leaders, where he again raised the tone against the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) and the Supreme Court, which is investigating him and his allies for misinforming about covid-19 and the elections, and for discredit democratic institutions.
"I am here the one who responds the most to processes and investigations in the Supreme Court, contrary to the opinion of the Public Ministry. What do you want with it? Do they want to steal our freedom, our highest good?"he asked himself rhetorically.
INCREASING VOLTAGE
The serious institutional tensions between Bolsonaro and the Judiciary have been dragging on since 2020, when the Supreme Court gave autonomy to states and municipalities to adopt social isolation measures to combat the pandemic, in the face of the denialism of the central government.
In 2021 they were aggravated by the participation of the president in protests calling for a "Military intervention" and the "closing" of Congress, and this year they continue with the serious attacks by the retired Army captain on the current electoral system.
Without evidence, Bolsonaro has been sowing suspicion about the electronic ballot boxes that Brazil has used in its elections since 1996 and whose security has always been attested by international observers.
He asked to recover the vote on paper, but he found the ‘no’ from Parliament, and now he wants the Armed Forces to carry out a count of the votes parallel to that of the TSE, the body responsible for the elections, and for an external company to carry out a "audit" prior to the polls.
"I can’t tell that a machine is not working properly? (…) We cannot allow this to continue happening. We want transparency"Bolsonaro demanded this Saturday.
The electoral court has already stressed that those who take care of the elections are "the unarmed forces"that is, the civilian population, and warned that Brazil will not allow "authoritative adventures". Along the same lines, the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco, stated this week that "no doubts" on "integrity" of the polls.
But as the elections approach, the president redoubles his offensive, especially against Alexandre de Moraes, the Supreme Court magistrate -one of the eleven- who supervises open investigations into Bolsonaro and who will assume the presidency of the TSE in August.
Bolsonaro accused De Moraes on Wednesday of behaving "all the time" What "the leader of a leftist and opposition party"and denounced him before the Supreme Court and the Prosecutor’s Office for an alleged crime of "authority abuse".
The Supreme Court has already rejected that demand and the Attorney General’s Office, headed by the jurist Augusto Aras, appointed by Bolsonaro, has yet to rule on the matter.
THE BOLSONARO CLAN WARNS OF "INSTABILITY"
In the midst of these clashes, Bolsonaro warned on Monday of the possibility of some "troubled elections"if there is a suspicion that "they were not clean"in a speech that recalled former US president Donald Trump, whom he supported when he tried to prevent Joe Biden from winning.
One of his sons, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, also spoke out this week in the same direction and, in an interview with the SBT channel, warned that Brazil is running "the risk" to face "instability", "if the electoral process takes place with that cloak of mistrust"about which he did not offer details.
He also claimed to have in his possession surveys "internal" who predict a triumph of his father "in the first round"although all the polls published to date and registered in the TSE foresee a comfortable victory for Lula, to whom they grant around 45% of the support, compared to the 30% that Bolsonaro would obtain.
