Negotiations begin for the change of government in Brazil

The elected president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, expressed this Friday, on his social networks, his willingness to work on the transition of government with the administration of the outgoing president, Jair Bolsonaro.

“Hello. Let’s work on the transition towards a better future for all”, says Lula’s tweet, published with an image of the Official Gazette of the Union that describes the process.

The message comes a day after President Bolsonaro held a brief meeting with the person in charge of coordinating the transition of power, Vice President-elect Geraldo Alckmin, at the Planalto presidential palace.

“The transition has already begun,” said Alckmin, who also met with the Minister of the Presidency and chief of staff, Ciro Nogueira, who is responsible for the transition by the Bolsonaro government.

Though Bolsonaro initially refused to acknowledge his defeat. In his first public statements on Tuesday, Nogueira told reporters that he had received authorization from the president to proceed with the change of government process.

“It was positive,” Alckmin said after Thursday’s meeting. He refused to answer whether Bolsonaro had congratulated him on Sunday’s win.

The president of Brazil spoke about “the willingness of the federal government to provide all the information, help, so that we have a transition that is guided by the public interest,” said the next vice president.

Alckmin added that on Tuesday he will return to Brasilia for more meetings.

Negotiations for the transition began after days of blockades of hundreds of roadsby the followers of Bolsonaro, who called for a military intervention to reverse the results of the elections.

In what have been the closest presidential elections since the country returned to democracy in 1985, Lula defeated Bolsonaro by about 2 million votes.

As of Thursday morning, more than 850 protests had been broken up, and 73 partial or total roadblocks remained, the federal highway police said. Of the 13 total blockades, most of them were in the state of Santa Catarina, in the south of the country.

[Con información de AP]

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