Brazil enter last week election campaign a scene of stormy violence in a strongly polarized country and a virtual technical tie in polls between the president Jair Bolsonaro Y Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Labor Party (PT). Robert JeffersonA far-right ex-MP with leafy causes of corruption on his back and also an overt Bolsonaroism faced gunfire. rifles and grenades With the Federal Police trying to arrest him on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. Two soldiers were injured. Bolsonaro tried to walk away from the situation and said he didn’t know Jefferson.. It didn’t take long for images of both shaking hands and smiling to circulate on social networks. Lula sought to exploit this fact by recalling Bolsonaro’s long-standing relationship with those who promoted political violence. The retiring captain’s increased voting intent since the first round was played leaves a veil of doubt on the possibility that this event will change polling choices on 30 October.
Jefferson was meticulous Sentenced to prison since August 2021 in the context of a case pursued by a so-called criminal organization operating on social networks to attack democracy. She wears an electronic anklet on one of her legs. President of the Supreme Election Board (TSE), Alexandre de Moraes ordered his arrest after the former legislator described the Supreme Court Secretary (STF) in a video. from Carmen Lucia “whore”. The police went to look for him, but numerous supporters of the Government came out to defend Jefferson, shouting “debauched Alexandre will not silence us” and “freedom”.
Jefferson believed he would gain more support from sympathizers and therefore assured the security force that he would not surrender. “Enough, I’m tired of being a victim of arbitrariness and abuse.. Unfortunately I will face them.” The PF was able to confirm that by the time he surrendered, Jefferson had fired twenty rounds and had dropped two grenades.
President’s embarrassment
“Roberto Jefferson has been arrested. The treatment of those who shot a policeman is like a bandit. I wish solidarity to the police officers who were injured in the incident,” said the president, and tried to distance himself from the former police officer. deputy. “He doesn’t have a single photo with me, nothing,” Bolsonaro said. The opposite was quickly proven.
The PT leader felt that Jefferson’s reactions posed a risk to Brazilian democracy. “Political perversion in this country has a face and a name.”. For Lula, these actions are fed by Bolsonaro’s own discourse: “He succeeded that there is a social sector that lies and spreads in this country. fake news all day”. The PT candidate also referred to the recent incident in which former minister and elected deputy Marina Silva was harassed by the Bolsonarists. “People should raise their voices at the ballot box against this. We cannot attempt to destroy those who disagree with us.”
political cost
“The Roberto Jefferson case is short-circuiting the Bolsonaro campaign,” said Bela Megale, columnist for the Rio de Janeiro newspaper. Or Balloon. According to columnist Bruno Boghossian folha Saint Paul’s the far right has made an “effort damage control“So that the Jefferson case doesn’t splash the re-election candidate. Bolsonaro tried to separate himself from the grenade launcher but did not stop harassing the Supreme Court, citing “investigations without constitutional support,” he added. ” he remembers being a retired captain accuses ministers of supporting Lula as main judicial authority and urges the public to react. On the other hand, questioning the transparency of the elections, he sued TSE, suspecting that if the retired captain were defeated, he could come to the fore again.
According to Ricardo Kertzman, columnist for Istoé magazine, “attempted assassination of federal police officers” by Jefferson, “Idol and guru of Bolsonarism”, just “one more chapter in this dreadful continuing story with no end date”. The former MP has become the “face and voice of a significant number” of far-right sympathizers “including Bolsonaro himself” who “always support and applaud hate speech”.