While Lula’s victory in the Brazilian presidential election is being hailed by many heads of state around the world, Brazil’s outgoing president Jair Bolsonaro has yet to react. This, more after more than 18 hours.
The leader of the Brazilian far right, who will have to hand over power to his rival from the left in January 2023, remains silent about Lula’s victory. The symbol of the Brazilian workers’ party became president again by obtaining 60.3 million votes, more than 2.1 million votes than his opponent. He is about to lead the country for a third time.
Traditionally the defeated calls the winner to congratulate him and makes a public statement, recognizing the victory of the opponent, but until this minute there is no public statement from President Bolsonaro. And Lula had said last night until 11:45 pm during a speech to supporters in Avenida Paulista (São Paulo) that he had not received any calls from Bolsonaro. “You know we’re going to have to have a government to talk to many people who are angry. Anywhere in the world, the defeated president would have already called me acknowledging his defeat. He, so far, has not called, I do not know if he will call and I do not know if he will recognize it,” he said.”
In 2018, Fernando Hadad then candidate of the PT, had quickly recognized the victory of Bolsonaro.
Obviously the pill is hard to swallow for the whimsical Brazilian leader, who seems to have trouble digesting the fact of having become the first sitting president to miss his re-election.