Jair Bolsonaro assures that he will “return” to Brazil to lead the opposition

First modification: 02/15/2023 – 13:39Last modification: 02/15/2023 – 13:45

“The right-wing movement is alive and we will move on.” With these words, Bolsonaro announced his intention to return to Brazil in March to lead the opposition to the new government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The ex-president added weeks of strict silence, but he granted his first interview after his departure from power to the American newspaper ‘The Wall Street Journal’ from your temporary residence in Florida.

There were many doubts about the future of the Latin American far-right leader. A few days before he finished his presidential term, he decided to go to the United States, but not before stirring up the specter of electoral fraud and making threats not to recognize the result of his rival.

The problem is that this ghost that permeated thousands of followers of his figure, who on January 8, 2023 staged a massive assault on the three state powers in Brasilia, generating great chaos in the Brazilian capital and taking part in what many they considered that it was a coup d’état by the extreme right of the country.

The assault shook Brazilian politics from the foundations and caused hundreds of people to be detained and some police and military personnel accused of being complicit in what happened in Brasilia that day. The investigations continue to clarify who promoted and financed the revolt, but all eyes have been directed during these weeks to Jair Bolsonaro.

That is the main reason for the scrupulous silence that the former president has maintained in recent weeks. Around him he has several investigations, including one on his participation in what happened in Brasilia, and also, since January 1, he lacks political immunity.

In the interview with ‘The Wall Street Journal’, Bolsonaro denied any connection to what happened in Brasilia and hid behind the fact that he was in Florida that day, thousands of kilometers from what was happening in the federal capital.

And although he mildly condemned what happened that day, he categorically denied that it was an organized coup. “Coup?, what coup? Where were the commander, the troops, the bombs?” the far-right leader replied to the journalist who asked him.

Bolsonaro was also questioned about the presidential elections that he lost against Lula da Silva and he was more moderate in acknowledging that “losing is part of the process”, a position that he did not show during the electoral campaign, when he questioned the reliability of the electronic system of vote after knowing the results. He now avoids saying that there was fraud, but assures that the elections “were flawed”, without giving more details or proof of what he affirms.

Leader of the opposition to Lula

The main objective of the former president seems to be to return to lead the opposition to the new Lula Executive and forge alliances to make his Government as impossible as possible. His strategy would be based on trying to unite the conservative majority that the Brazilian Congress currently has to hinder the laws that ‘Lula’ da Silva and his government team intend to get out of.

During the interview, Bolsonaro assured that his main objectives upon his return will be to defend what he defines as a “liberal agenda” in economic matters, fight against abortion and any attempt to expand this right and defend the carrying of arms among citizens. Positions that seek to gain support from the main sectors that have defended it in recent years, such as religion or arms.

What seems clear is that, if he returns, Bolsonaro will have a turbulent period ahead of him in which he will probably have to face cases against him that he has been accumulating since the beginning of his government. A long-distance race that aims to reach, again, the elections scheduled for 2026.

With local media