Hundreds of supporters of Brazil’s far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro invaded the main places of power in Brasilia, the Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace of Planalto on Sunday, causing a lot of damage, according to images circulating on social networks. These demonstrators are protesting against the return to power a week ago of leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who defeated Bolsonaro in the second round on October 30.
A veritable human tide of demonstrators dressed in yellow and green stormed the country’s main places of power in Brasilia, AFP noted.
Urgent: extremistas bolsonaristas acabaram de invadir o Congresso pic.twitter.com/QnCRZgrqpn
— George Marques (@GeorgMarques) January 8, 2023
Images that recall the invasion of the Capitol
“This absurd attempt to impose the will by force will not prevail,” warned the new Minister of Justice Flavo Dino, on Twitter, adding: “there will be reinforcements”. The radical Bolsonarists who arrived en masse took the security forces by surprise, a week after the inauguration of leftist President Lula, whose victory against Jair Bolsonaro in the October presidential election they never recognized, noted a photographer from AFP.
Essa absurda tentativa de impor a vosade pela força não vai prevalecer. O Governo do Distrito Federal afirma que haverá reforços. E as forced de que dispomos estão agindo. Estou na sede do Ministério da Justiça.
— Flavio Dino (@FlavioDino) January 8, 2023
Impressive images, reminiscent of the invasion of the Capitol in the United States, show on social networks a veritable human tide of demonstrators dressed in yellow and green storming the places of power in Brasilia. The area near the Three Powers Square, where the Presidential Palace of Planalto, the Supreme Court and the Congress meet, had however been cordoned off by the authorities, but the Bolsonarists managed to break the security cordons.
French elected officials denounce “attacks from the far right”
French elected officials, from the presidential camp and from the left-wing opposition, castigated Sunday evening the “far right attacks” in Brazil and showed their support for President Lula after the invasion of several institutions by Bolsonarist militants. “Solidarity with the Brazilian people, whose institutions are attacked by far-right activists. This is where conspiracy leads, the delegitimization of a democratically elected president and the questioning of universal suffrage”, tweeted the Macronist MEP Stéphane Séjourné, head of the Renaissance party.
On the left, the rebel and ex-presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon accused the Brazilian “extreme right” of “attempting a Trump-style putsch against the new left-wing president Lula”. “Solidarity with Brazilian democracy!”, He wrote on the same social network.
The police, who seemed completely overwhelmed, tried, in vain, to repel them with tear gas. “This absurd attempt to impose a will by force will not prevail. The government of the Federal District (of Brasilia) will send reinforcements and the forces we have are acting,” Flavio Dino said on Twitter. , Minister of Justice and Public Security. On Saturday, Flavio Dino had authorized the deployment of agents of the National Force, a special police force sometimes sent to the various states in the event of a threat against law and order.
These images of supporters of #Bolsonaro having fun in the hall of Congress look like two drops of water to those two years ago of the Trumpists in #Capitol…#Brazil#Brazilpic.twitter.com/7rUkQfrTLp
— Antoine Llorca (@antoinellorca) January 8, 2023
Request for military intervention
“We have to restore order after this fraudulent election,” said Sarah Lima, a 27-year-old pro-Bolsonaro engineer from Goianesia, 300 km from Brasilia, to an AFP journalist present on the spot. Lula, 77, was absent from Brasilia on Sunday: he went to Araraquara, a city in the state of Sao Paulo (southeast) devastated by floods at the end of the year.
Bolsonarists have already been demonstrating in front of military barracks since the narrow defeat of the outgoing far-right president against Lula on October 30. They demanded the intervention of the army to prevent the latter from returning to power for a third term, after those from 2003 to 2010. Some of them also blocked roads for more than a week after the election. .
Jair Bolsonaro, who never congratulated Lula on his election and shunned his inauguration, left Brazil two days before the end of his term and is in Florida, United States. The investiture took place on January 1 in Brasilia without major incident, in the presence of tens of thousands of Lula’s supporters.