Cheered by tens of thousands of supporters in Brasilia, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday adopted a threatening tone towards the Supreme Court, at the risk of aggravating the institutional crisis on this day of protests across the country.
The far-right president wanted to make the national day of September 7 a show of force by calling "gigantic crowds" to support him.
In Sao Paulo, Jair Bolsonaro, to whom all the polls predict a defeat in the October 2022 poll, again called for a modification of the current electronic voting system, alleging that it led to fraud, explaining even refusing "to participate in a prank call ". "We want clean, democratic elections with a public count of the ballots", declared the head of state. "I cannot participate in a farce such as the one promoted by the president of the Higher Electoral Tribunal".
Bolsonaro assures without proof that electronic voting, in force in Brazil since 1996, is tainted with fraud and that he should have been elected in the first round in 2018. He requires that each electronic vote be validated with a printed receipt in order to allow a recount of votes in the event of a dispute.
A system, which according to specialists precisely favors fraud.
It was in Brasilia, crisscrossed by more than 5,000 police officers, that this atypical Independence Day began earlier in the day.
Bolsonaro flew over the huge Esplanade of the Ministries in a helicopter before haranguing the large crowd who greeted him with cries of "Mito, Mito!"
"(" The Myth ", his nickname).
“From today, a new story begins to be written in Brazil,” he said to ovations.
Threats against the Supreme Court
Jair Bolsonaro then attacked with virulence one of the judges of the Supreme Court, Alexandre de Moraes, who ordered the opening of investigations against him and his entourage, in particular for disseminating false information. "Either the head of this power (the Supreme Court) puts (this judge) in his place, or this power will suffer consequences that nobody wants," he said. Clearly threatening remarks, while Jair Bolsonaro had already presented this day of mobilization as an "ultimatum" against the Supreme Court.
“We don't want a breakup. We don't want to fight with other powers. But we cannot allow anyone to endanger our freedom, ”he added, to the applause of the demonstrators wearing the green yellow flags of Brazil. Virtually none of them used a mask, while, despite the progress of vaccination, the pandemic is far from being controlled in a country where more than 580,000 people have died from Covid-19.
Many protesters carried placards demanding the dismissal of Supreme Court judges.
One of them demanded: "military intervention with Bolsonaro in Brasilia".
"I have come to defend our freedom and free the country from this filthy bunch of corrupt Supreme Court politicians who want to take it away from us," Marcio Souza, a security guard wearing a t-shirt, told AFP in Brasilia. sporting the face of Jair Bolsonaro.
"An authoritarian discourse that weakens democracy"
"What is most worrying is these speeches by the president against democratic institutions, in particular the Supreme Court, unheard of since the return of democracy" after the military dictatorship of 1964-1985 ", laments political scientist Mauricio Santoro.
“It's a bit like Hungary, Poland, Venezuela or the United States during Trump's time: an authoritarian discourse that weakens democracy from within,” he concludes.
The day was at high risk as the opposition also demonstrated.
She calls for the departure of a president accused of threatening democracy, of having pitifully managed the Covid crisis, as well as the economy with almost record unemployment and worrying inflation.
On the night of Monday to Tuesday, hundreds of Bolsonarists in trucks broke barriers and entered the avenue leading to Congress and the Supreme Court, which they threatened to "invade".
With 51% of Brazilians unfavorable to his management, Bolsonaro has never been so unpopular since coming to power in January 2019. He is largely left behind by the left-wing ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Lula) in intentions vote for the October 2022 election, and sometimes even beaten in the first round.