02/04/2024 – 15:35
Former President of the Republic Jair Bolsonaro (PL) once again attacked the country's Electoral Court on Saturday, 3. In an interview with Portuguese influencer Sérgio Tavares, Bolsonaro even said that the Federal Supreme Court (STF) worked with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) in “a management to elect Lula at any price”.
“Nobody can understand how Lula da Silva won the elections,” said Bolsonaro about the 2022 election.
In addition to insinuating fraud in the electoral dispute, the former president insisted on the conspiracy theory, unproven in an investigation, that there were “infiltrators” in the attack on the Three Powers on January 8, 2023 and once again spread misinformation about the covid-19 pandemic. , reiterating previous positions in defense of “early treatment” and skepticism regarding vaccines against the disease.
Bolsonaro also commented on the search and seizure operation at addresses linked to Carlos Bolsonaro (Republicans), councilor of Rio de Janeiro. The former president's son is being investigated by the Federal Police (PF) on suspicion of monitoring political enemies through a parallel information apparatus installed at the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (Abin).
“These are very worrying statements in the sense of generating disinformation”, says Daniel Pinheiro, university professor and researcher of Political Culture at the State University of Santa Catarina (Udesc).
For Pinheiro, having given the statements to a foreign media outlet, such as the Portuguese influencer's channel, is not a safe conduct for the allegations to escape the Brazilian justice system.
“Any statement by a public person, regardless of the vehicle they are in and especially a former president of the Republic, will have a political impact. It will certainly resonate in Brazil. Nowadays, information has no borders, it will reach the country and it will have repercussions. In the legal sphere, it will certainly be debated, especially in the list of actions that are being processed on this topic”, explains Pinheiro.
Regarding electronic voting machines, the former president was evasive
When asked by the influencer about the use of electronic voting machines in the country's last elections, Bolsonaro gave an evasive answer and complained about not being able to “doubt” the electoral system. “Anyone who doubts Brazil’s elections in 2022 will be arrested. Do I need to say anything else?” asked the former president, avoiding a more direct criticism of the digital voting process.
The insistence on a supposed thesis of fallibility in electronic voting led Bolsonaro to be declared ineligible by the TSE. On July 18, 2022, the then president called a meeting with foreign ambassadors to try to place the country's electoral system under suspicion.
The episode was denounced by opposition parties at the time and, in June 2023, the former president had his ineligibility declared by the TSE for abuse of political power and misuse of the media.
Since the implementation of the electronic voting machine in Brazil in 1996, there has never been any evidence of fraud involving the system.
For Daniel Pinheiro, the dubiousness in the response about the system is strategic for the former president's communication.
“He needs to maintain the speeches he produces. Keeping the speech is keeping the strength. Even though this is a weakened thesis that has already harmed him legally, we need to remember that he also fights this conviction. So this, in fact, is a strengthening, as it makes his followers echo and maintain the message”, says the researcher.
As president, Bolsonaro even sponsored a parliamentary initiative through a printed vote, but the proposal ended up being rejected by the Chamber of Deputies. Even though he was defeated in the Legislature, Bolsonaro continued to return to the idea in fiery speeches.
To the insinuations of fraud that had never been proven, were added attacks on the Electoral Court, a position that, in Saturday's interview, he once again ratified, alleging to the Portuguese influencer that the TSE, in collusion with the Federal Supreme Court (STF), had done “ a management to elect Lula at any price”.
Unsatisfied with the results of the polls and supported by the insinuating speech against the electoral system, supporters of the former president camped in front of Army barracks across the country for weeks, from the end of the election until the first days of the Lula government.
The persistence of these camps ended on January 8, when thousands of coup plotters vandalized the headquarters of the Three Powers, in Brasília. As Estadão demonstrated based on an analysis of more than 30 hours of video, the coup protesters reproduced in the extremist act the content of Bolsonaro's speeches from the PL party convention, ground zero of his re-election campaign.
Bolsonaro talks about 'trap' on January 8
In the interview with the Portuguese influencer, Bolsonaro claimed that “there was a trap” on January 8th. “I call it the Tupiniquim Capitol,” said the former president, alluding to the attack on the North American Congress on January 6, 2021, when, in circumstances similar to the Brazilian case, supporters of then-president Donald Trump – and encouraged by him – invaded the headquarters of the United States Legislature, on the day that parliamentarians were going to ratify Joe Biden's victory in the North American elections.
When citing the attack on the Capitol, Bolsonaro insinuates that both attacks were “traps” set up by political enemies. “There was invasion and vandalism of public buildings. Although, when these Brazilians arrived there, everything was already vandalized”, stated Bolsonaro, in disagreement with the facts found by the investigations conducted by the STF and the CPIs in the National Congress and the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District.
As determined by the investigations, the buildings were not vandalized before three o'clock in the afternoon, when, after breaking the police cordons in Praça dos Três Poderes, the extremists began the attack on public property.
Bolsonaro wanted to insinuate that the vandals' front line was taken over by “infiltrators”, a narrative that his supporters have used since the day of the coup acts.
As shown by the Estadão, the Wikipedia entry on January 8th was successively edited in an attempt to insert into the article a version that was inconsistent with the facts proven in the investigation. Supporters of the former president, even today, repeatedly claim that responsibility for the attacks was faked.
Former president speaks again about ineffective treatments
During the covid-19 pandemic, Bolsonaro encouraged the adoption of “early treatment”, a protocol against covid-19 that involved ivermectin and other medicines with no proven efficacy against the disease, such as chloroquine.
In the interview, the former president once again defended the medications, claiming, without providing evidence, that ivermectin, prescribed in the country's prisons, would have prevented inmates from falling ill from Covid-19.
“During the pandemic, I tried to study as much as possible about what was happening. I reached an obvious conclusion: any medication or procedure, the doctors have to decide”, said the former president.
During the Covid-19 crisis, however, the then Chief Executive came into direct con
flict with his Health Ministers, who were trying to follow the protocols against the virus recognized in the scientific community as effective.
According to experts interviewed by Covid's Parliamentary Inquiry Commission (CPI), even in 2021, the country could have avoided up to 400,000 deaths from the disease if it had adopted appropriate measures against the proliferation of the new coronavirus.
'I didn't take it because I read the leaflet', says Bolsonaro about the covid vaccine
In addition to insisting on ineffective methods against Covid-19, Bolsonaro once again ratified his skepticism towards vaccines, the only proven method for preventing serious cases and deaths. “I didn’t take it because the last phase (of the tests) wasn’t completed, and I read the package leaflet (for the vaccine) from Pfizer,” Bolsonaro told the Portuguese influencer.
Contrary to what was claimed, the Pfizer vaccine went through the last phase of clinical testing and obtained definitive registrations with health surveillance bodies around the world, including the Brazilian agency, the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa).
In November last year, the covid-19 vaccine was included in the mandatory list of immunizations for babies from 6 months of age. When asked by the interviewer about the topic, Bolsonaro was evasive.
“If I give my position, I could be arrested tomorrow in Brazil. Parents are the ones who have to decide, in my opinion”, said the former president.
O Estadão interviewed infectious disease specialists who clarified that the mandatory vaccination against Covid-19 in the children's calendar was due to scientific evidence demonstrating that the disease was increasingly common among babies and children. Furthermore, conditioning access to public services through proof of being up to date with the vaccination schedule is not new in the country, and is standard practice for a series of immunizations.
Bolsonaro comments on PF inquiries
Regarding vaccines, Bolsonaro also stated that he had been cleared in a PF investigation investigating tampering with his immunization card, distorting the conclusion reached by the Comptroller General of the Union (CGU) on January 19.
The CGU confirmed that the immunization records on Bolsonaro's card attributed to a UBS in the capital of São Paulo are false. This does not signal Bolsonaro's “innocence”, as there is another investigation underway into his vaccination card.
This investigation is being carried out by the Federal Police and investigates suspected irregularities in other immunization records, allegedly made in Duque de Caxias (RJ). This is the case that accuses the former president of crimes, in which he has already been the target of search and seizure.
Still regarding the PF, Bolsonaro complained about the media coverage of the search and seizure operation that targeted the addresses of his son, Carlos Bolsonaro, as part of the investigation that investigates suspected misuse of the Abin structure to spy on political opponents of the family.
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