Brazil’s government deployed additional armed forces across the country to prevent expected far-right demonstrations, hours after former President Jair Bolsonaro posted a video online questioning the outcome of October’s election.
On Tuesday night, the administration of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who took office on January 1 after the leftist leader defeated Bolsonaro, said extremist groups were planning protests across the country on Wednesday night to overthrow the new president.
The government, which cited social media posts calling for a “national mega-protest for the takeover,” deployed additional security forces in the capital, Brasilia and state capitals to get ahead of the demonstrations.
But by Wednesday night, the call for protest appeared to have failed, with only a handful of protesters in the Brazilian capital.
The threats came days after thousands of pro-Bolsonaro protesters stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and the nation’s presidential palace, demanding military intervention to oust leftist Lula from power.
More than 1,500 far-right activists were arrested after Sunday’s riots as police dismantled pro-Bolsonaro camps outside military bases across the country.
Protesters claim, without evidence, that the October election was rigged and have called for the armed forces to launch a coup.
On Tuesday night, Bolsonaro, who defied tradition by traveling to the United States instead of attending his successor’s inauguration, added fuel to the fire by posting a video on Facebook openly questioning Lula’s election victory.
“Lula was not chosen by the people. He was elected by the supreme court and the electoral court,” he claimed, bolstering a far-right conspiracy theory that the courts had rigged the election in Lula’s favor.
Bolsonaro deleted the video, but his supporters are likely to interpret it as a call to action. His opponents say it is further evidence of the need to prosecute the former president, who has said he will return to Brazil shortly for medical treatment.
“It’s about time,” Felipe Neto, a prominent celebrity and critic of Bolsonaro, said on Twitter. “Bolsonaro posted a video on his Facebook saying openly that Lula was NOT elected by the people. He attacked directly [supreme court and electoral court].”
The rise in far-right extremism comes amid new polls suggesting many Brazilians are concerned about the integrity of the election, which Lula won by less than two percentage points.
According to an Atlas Intelligence poll, almost 40% of respondents said Lula did not win more votes than Bolsonaro.
The elections, which took place in two rounds, were monitored by countless international observers, who considered them free, fair and reliable.
Lula, who served two terms as president between 2003 and 2010, has taken a hard line with far-right extremists after Sunday’s events. He has called them “vandals and fascists.” [who] they must be punished”.
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The government has asked the Supreme Court to take measures to crack down on protesters, including arrests, blocking accounts in messaging groups and identifying vehicles involved in the protests.
A crisis cabinet also decided to strengthen security in state capitals. The presidential guard, cavalry regiments and military police units were put on standby in Brasilia.
“The country is about to enter a serious situation again, after the tragic events of Sunday the 8th, when the world, horrified, saw the attempt to completely destroy the material and immaterial heritage,” said the government’s request in the Supreme Court. “The institutions are again called upon to react.”
Additional reporting by Carolina Ingizza