Bolsonaro brings together thousands and talks about the abuse of some in the country – 02/25/2024 – Power

Former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) stated this Sunday (25) in a speech on Avenida Paulista, in São Paulo, that no “evil is eternal” and that “abuse by some brings insecurity to all of us”.

In the rest of his speech, all improvised, the former president complained about the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) for being ineligible, criticized the STF (Supreme Federal Court) for the penalties for those who participated in the attacks on January 8, 2023, thanked the present, he recalled the stab wound he suffered in 2018 and took stock of his government. He also made attacks on President Lula (PT), but without naming him.

Bolsonaro also said that he has been “beaten” and spoke of “persecution” against him. At this time, he criticized the press in general and said that he never participated in a coup plot in 2022.

“What is a coup? It’s a tank in the street, it’s a weapon, a conspiracy. None of this was done in Brazil,” he said. “Now the coup is because there is a draft state defense decree. Coup using the Constitution? Be patient,” said the former president, admitting the existence of a text along these lines.

Bolsonaro also asked for amnesty for those arrested on January 8th. “I seek pacification to erase the past.”

Before Bolsonaro, pastor Silas Malafaia, one of the organizers of the event, criticized both the STF and the TSE in his speech during the event.

The pastor criticized the actions of minister Alexandre de Moraes during the 2022 elections and made insinuations about an alleged role of President Lula (PT) in the January 8 attack, organized by Bolsonarists in 2023.

The act attracted thousands of people. There was no official estimate by the São Paulo Military Police. At least four blocks of Paulista were overcrowded. There were Bolsonarists, more spread out, in around a total of ten blocks of the avenue.

Bolsonaro made the statement on top of an electric trio alongside allies such as the governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans), the former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro, pastor Silas Malafaia and the mayor of São Paulo, Ricardo Nunes (MDB), which seeks the support of the former president.

The former president accumulated coup statements throughout his term and is now the target of an investigation by the Federal Police into a coup plot organized in 2022 to prevent President Lula from taking office.

This Sunday’s act aimed to demonstrate Bolsonaro’s political strength and put pressure on the STF, which has authorized arrests and searches in connection with the investigation of a coup plot.

During the Bolsonarist act, Israeli flags were omnipresent. A mandatory item among street vendors, the country’s flag was chosen by the former president in his first wave to the public on top of the electric trio.

The Federal Police investigation targeting Bolsonaro has as one of its bases messages and testimony from Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, Bolsonaro’s former aide-de-camp at the Presidency of the Republic.

Other elements still in the investigation phase are the coup-based meeting in which, in July 2022, the then president suggested ways to attack the electoral system and, already after the election, his role in drafting a supposed draft decree in the which the coup d’état would be based on.

Apart from these points that came to light in a recent PF operation, Bolsonaro collects a series of previous evidence of a coup-like tone.

The former president has already been convicted by the TSE for attacks and lies about the electoral system, for example, and is the target of different other investigations at the STF. Right now, he is ineligible until at least 2030.

In the decision authorizing the arrests of the former president’s allies at the beginning of the month, minister Alexandre de Moraes stated that the practice of crimes against democracy and criminal association has already been proven.

If he is prosecuted and convicted of the crimes of attempted coup d’état, attempted abolition of the democratic rule of law and criminal association, the former president could face a sentence of up to 23 years in prison and be ineligible for more than 30 years.

Bolsonaro has not yet been indicted for these crimes, but suspicions about these crimes led the Federal Police to launch an operation that targeted his allies at the beginning of the month.

The event opened with a prayer given by First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro. Among those who spoke were governor Tarcísio, senator Magno Malta (PL-ES), and deputies Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG) and Gustavo Gayer (PL-GO). Mayor Ricardo Nunes did not speak.

Before the event, Bolsonaro promised that the act would be peaceful and that it would respect the Brazilian Constitution.

Bolsonaro instructed his supporters not to take banners and posters to Avenida Paulista, in a strategy to minimize tensions with the Supreme Court and with Minister Alexandre de Moraes, the main target of the act and who presides over inquiries that could result in new convictions for Bolsonaro.

The request to avoid parallel events and for supporters not to carry banners and posters was a strategy to avoid increasing the dispute with the STF and Moraes.

Throughout his term, Bolsonaro frequently criticized the STF, using terms such as “politicalha”, “it’s fucking over”, in addition to accusing the court of having links with the PT and political activism. The attacks intensified from 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In previous events, in addition to criticizing the STF and Congress, Bolsonaro supporters also displayed banners and posters supporting the idea of ​​a coup d’état in Brazil and praising the military dictatorship that occurred between 1964 and 1985.