With a declining popularity rating, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is counting on his supporters to march across the country and demonstrate force on Tuesday, National Day. In response, opponents of the far-right president also announced a demonstration on Tuesday, raising fears of tensions between the various processions.
Thousands of demonstrators gathered this Tuesday morning, Independence Day, in the streets of Brasilia and Sao Paulo, galvanized by the appeals of the Brazilian president. On site in the Brazilian capital, Jair Bolsonaro delivered a speech to his supporters, attacking the Supreme Court: “We do not want a break, we do not want to fight with any power. But we cannot accept that one person disturbs our democracy. We cannot admit that a person puts our freedom in danger ”, he declared, reports the Brazilian media. Globo.
He thus refers to one of the judges of the Supreme Court, Alexandre de Moraes, who launched an investigation against Bolsonaro for disseminating false information, and searches of several of his relatives, suspected of financing groups of demonstrators favorable to a coup. Another judge, Luis Roberto Barroso, a member of the Higher Electoral Court (TSE), also launched an investigation into the president following his recurring attacks on the electronic voting system.
The stake of these demonstrations is therefore for the president to put pressure on the Brazilian Supreme Court, which supervises these investigations implicating him and his close relations. These large mobilizations even represent an “ultimatum” for the two judges of the highest judicial body in the country, in the words of the far-right president.
A show of force
In Brasilia, the surroundings of the Supreme Court were barricaded and a large security device was put in place, fearing that the pro-Bolsonaro demonstrators would take their example from their certain Americans, and invade the institution, like the Trump supporters made on Capitol Hill last January. According to CNN Brazil, the police will even carry out searches to seize firearms and bladed weapons, fearing phenomena of violence.
Monday evening, already, groups of demonstrators had forced a police blockade to invade the Place des Trois Pouvoirs, where the Congress and the Supreme Court are located, then closed to the public to avoid overflows.
Faced with ever-growing criticism of his management of the Covid-19 crisis, which has killed more than 580,000 to date, accusations of corruption and numerous investigations against his government and his family, Jair Bolsonaro wants to rally his electoral base to not to show your weaknesses. According to Brazilian political scientist Guilherme Casarões, quoted by CNN: “The only way for Bolsonaro to make believe that he remains popular is to take to the streets. Gatherings, processions in strategic places, grandiose photos to put on the wall of his office. It has no statistical value, but it has image power. ”
The opposition has also decided to take to the streets on Tuesday, to counter the Bolsonarist movement. If the different processions must not cross, the presence of pro and anti-Bolsonaro in the streets raises fears of clashes.
According to the latest poll by the Brazilian Datafolha institute, the still ultra-popular left-wing ex-president Lula Da Silva is given the winner in the second round of the next presidential election in 2022 at 58%, against 31% for Jair Bolsonaro. In case of victory, he would then regain power at the age of 77.
