After two days of silence following his narrow defeat by leftist Lula da Silva in Brazil’s presidential election, far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro today indicated he was not planning to contest the result: “it’s over”, he reportedly told the nation’s Supreme Court.
In an interview with the newspaper O Globo, Bolsonaro’s vice-president, Hamilton Mourão, made it clear he accepted the defeat. “There’s no point in crying any more, we lost the game,” he said.
Mourão also signalled that he opposed the pro-Bolsonaro protests that have involved hardcore supporters blockading roads to demand a military uprising, bringing traffic chaos to cities including Rio and São Paulo. “There are 58 million people who are unhappy,” Mourão said of Bolsonaro’s voters. “But they agreed to take part in the game. So they now need to calm down.”
If he was planning anything funny, it didn’t come together. If he wasn’t, he’s decided not to go full Trump. Either way, good news for Brazil.
