Lula: “Today we are sure that Brazil ran a serious risk of having a coup d’état”

The president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silvaurged this Monday to “consolidate“democracy, after the country ran”serious risk“to suffer”a hit” of State perpetrated by his predecessor, the far-right Jair Bolsonaro.

“Today we are sure that this country was at serious risk of having a coup d’état“, said Lula after hearing the testimony of two former commanders of the Armed Forces, who stated to the Police that Bolsonaro proposed that they join his plan to annul the 2022 elections with the purpose of staying in power.

Lula, who made these statements at the opening of a meeting with his cabinet of ministers in Brasilia, stressed that there was no return to “the dark times” of the military dictatorship (1964-1985), of which Bolsonaro is nostalgic, because “some people in the Armed Forces did not want to and did not accept” join the coup attempt.

The president thus referred to the revealing testimonies of the former chiefs of the Army and Air Force, released last Friday by the Supreme Court and which place the far-right leader at the center of the coup plot that sought to prevent Lula’s Government from assuming power. on January 1, 2023.

Marco Antonio Freire Gomes and Carlos Baptista Júnior, former commanders of the Army and Aeronautics, declared to the Police that they met several times with Bolsonaro and his closest advisors, and that they invited them to support their plan to annul the 2022 elections, which Lula won by a narrow margin.

Lula described Bolsonaro as “coward” and “not have courage” to carry out his authoritarian project and that instead, he stayed “crying” at home and “fled“to the United States for the next three months”with the expectation that the coup would occur later”.

In fact, a week after Lula’s inauguration, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed the headquarters of the Presidency, Congress and the Supreme Court to encourage a military intervention that would return the retired Army captain to power.

Bolsonarowho has always denied any participation in the coup attempt, is listed as being investigated in the case, and although formal charges have not yet been filed against him, the Supreme Court has forced him to hand over his passport and has prohibited him from leaving Brazil.

“We know that there was a coup attempt in this country“, but ““The people were wiser and braver, and today we are here with the aim of doing something very important.” compared to the previous Government, which dedicated itself to “stimulate hatred and lies”, highlighted the current Brazilian president.

In this sense, he asked his nearly 40 ministers “consolidate the democratic process“, preach the “respect for institutions” and “guarantee respect for the Constitution.”

“The only possibility of rebuilding this country is by consolidating the democratic process and making people understand how important democracy is.”, he noted.

The meeting takes place at a time when Lula’s popularity ratings are at their lowest level since he took power a little over a year ago.