Nationwide Protests Spark In Brazil After Historic Presidential Election Transcript

Tonight, anger boiling in Brazil, a symptom of a contentious presidential election. Current President, Jair Bolsonaro, supporters unwilling to accept his narrow, but decisive defeat.

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In the days following his loss to opponent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Sunday, Bolsonaro felt quiet while his supporters grew louder. Amid the unrest, almost two days after his election loss, Bolsonaro finally addressed the nation.

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Just as telling is what Bolsonaro did not say. While his chief of staff said they would begin the transition of power, Bolsonaro never formally conceded, he never recognized his opponent’s victory and he said the protestors are right, but should remain peaceful.

I think he is saying these kinds of things, just like Trump did in order to send messages to his supporters that he still loves them. If you recall the comment that Donald Trump made on January 6th, when he asked them to go home.

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Protestors carrying flags, bearing Bolsonaro’s face blocked roads, they blocked highways facing off with police on roads leading to Sau Paulo Airport, even causing flight delays, squeezing the supply to and from major cities in Brazil. How long the protests will persist is not clear, but the impact is, creating an uphill battle for da Silva as he ready to assume power. With such a divided country, what is Lula’s agenda moving forward?

I think he’s going to spend a lot of time in the international arena working on climate change, defending the Amazon, ending deforestation. He’ll also have to tackle a very complicated economic situation, because of inflation and other problems in the country.

Okay. Marissa joins us now live in studio here. Marisa, a couple questions. First, has President Bolsonaro reached out to Lula yet? Because, as you reported, it’s very ambiguous what he’s saying, whether he’s conceding or not.

Right. It’s tradition for them to speak to each other directly. However, that has not happened. What we understand is the vice president for Bolsonaro has spoken to the vice president for Lula, promising to help the transition of power, but nothing direct. As we mentioned in the piece, the chief of staff of Bolsonaro has promised to help the transition of power, but nothing from Bolsonaro yet.

It looks like some bridges are being built, but we’re not right there. I have to ask you about these protests, because they’re slowing the economy. The economy’s already in trouble in Brazil. Is there any sign that the blockades with the truckers or the airports that that’s going to be gone, come tomorrow?

Yes and no, because if you look at things on the ground right now, they have slowed down a little bit, but that’s because of a Supreme Court order in Brazil. They had ordered for state police to come in and a lot of the barricades, that we were talking about in the piece, have been taken down. However, our crews on the scene are telling us that a lot of these truck driving protestors are actually saying they have every intention of going back out, come tomorrow, once state police are out of there. Tomorrow’s a national holiday in Brazil. They say they’re planning on taking the holiday to actually demonstrate, in front of military headquarters, and demanding that the military take action to keep Bolsonaro in power. Tom, get another day of holding our breath, waiting to see what tomorrow holds.

We will be watching and reporting all of it. Okay. Marissa, thank you so much.

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