Lula: Bolsonaro humiliated the Armed Forces and owes them and the Brazilian people an apology.
'He had no right to involve the Armed Forces in forming a commission to investigate electronic voting machines. The result was humiliating,' stated the president-elect.
By Guilherme Levorato, 247 - President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) gave a speech this Thursday (10) during meeting with allied parliamentarians at the Banco do Brasil Cultural Center (CCBB) in Brasília, and harshly criticized Jair Bolsonaro (PL) for involving the Armed Forces in the electoral process.
Due to pressure from Bolsonaro, the military set up a commission to monitor and oversee the elections. After weeks of secrecy, the Ministry of Defense released a report on the electoral process this Wednesday (9). The document does not prove any fraud. "In the elections, and it does not support any of the accusations that Bolsonaro made throughout the campaign against electronic voting machines and the voting system. 'You are seeing that there are still some people in front of barracks who are unhappy with the election results, because of all the accusations, all the fake news, all the lies told about the electoral process, that the electronic voting machines were not serious. I remember Saddam Hussein saying that he had to confront the United States because the United States said he had chemical weapons and he didn't have the courage to say he didn't. And yesterday something humiliating, deplorable happened to our Armed Forces. A president of the Republic, who is the supreme commander of the Armed Forces, did not have the right to involve the Armed Forces in forming a commission to investigate electronic voting machines, something that belongs to civil society, political parties, and the National Congress. And the result was humiliating,' said Lula."
The president-elect stated that Bolsonaro has a duty to apologize to the Armed Forces and the Brazilian people. "I don't know if the president is ill, I don't know, but he has an obligation to come on television and apologize to Brazilian society and the Armed Forces for having used the Armed Forces, a serious institution, a guarantee for the people against possible external enemies, to be humiliated by presenting a report that says nothing, absolutely nothing, about what he has been accusing for so long. A president can make mistakes, but he cannot lie. It is unacceptable for a president of the Republic to lie to his people. And yesterday, we just proved that a president who had been elected deputy five times by electronic voting, who had his sons elected by electronic voting, questioned the electronic voting system. He knew he was going to lose the elections, he was sure he was going to lose. It wasn't a contest between two men, between two parties, between two candidates. It was a contest between a candidate and the state apparatus, because it was used in its entirety: intelligence, the Federal Police, the Federal Highway Police, the police of each state, the businessmen making threats."
Even after the brief speech given by Bolsonaro Last week, according to Lula, "he still hasn't acknowledged defeat." "It would be so easy to do what Alckmin did when he ran against me, what Serra did when he ran against me, what I did twice with Fernando Henrique Cardoso when I lost the elections. Pick up the phone and say: 'Look, congratulations on your victory.' And announce to the country, this country has a loser and a winner. He still hasn't had the courage to do that, just as Saddam Hussein died without the courage to acknowledge that Iraq didn't have chemical weapons. He sank the country because of a lie that only he believed. Therefore, President Bolsonaro has a debt to the Brazilian people. Apologize for the number of lies that were told in this election and for the offenses he made against the electronic voting system, which is a model that the whole world should be using. The world's largest economy [the United States] is still counting slips of paper."
Lula also sent a message to Bolsonaro supporters who, since the announcement of the presidential election results, have been protesting in some parts of the country, calling for a military coup. "Unfortunately, there are people, a minority, who are in the streets asking for things – they don't even know what they're asking for, but they're asking. If I could tell these people, go home. That's what democracy is, one wins and another loses, one laughs and the other cries. It's like that in any sport, in any politics. How many times have I cried because I lost? How many times have I arrived home thinking that everything was over for me? And today I discover that a defeat is just an incentive for me to prepare better for the next election. So if you are listening online, go home, don't be violent with children, don't be violent with those who think differently from you. Let's respect those who are not like us, who don't think like we think. Let's respect those who don't like the candidate we like. That's what democracy is, it's living democratically in diversity. I'm not asking anyone to like me, I'm only asking people: respect the election results, because we won the elections and we are going to recover this country."
Lula also spoke about the meetings he had on Wednesday. with the presidents of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), of Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), and of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Justice Rosa WeberThe Workers' Party member still He heaped praise on the president of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Minister Alexandre de Moraes."Yesterday I came here to visit Brazilian institutions to say the following: from now on you will have peace, because you will not have an insolent president wanting to interfere in the Supreme Court, in the Electoral Court. It's not possible. The ministers of the Supreme Court cannot go to a restaurant, go to the movies, they cannot leave their homes. The president of the electoral court [Alexandre de Moraes], who had stupendous courage, who is a man who had exemplary behavior, is the pride of all of Brazil - and it doesn't matter if Alexandre de Moraes is conservative, progressive, right-wing, or centrist. What matters is that he showed great courage and dignity in the integrity and commitment to directing these elections."
Lula also pledged to defend the country's state-owned companies. "Our commitment is very simple: it is to rebuild this country. Democracy is back, civility is back. This people will be heard, they will have the right to have a say in what we need to do. I want to tell you that Brazilian state-owned companies will be respected. Petrobras will not be broken up, Banco do Brasil will not be privatized, Caixa Econômica, BNDES and BNB [Banco do Nordeste] will once again be investment banks, including for small and medium-sized entrepreneurs."
He also criticized Petrobras' mega-dividends, including the latest one.He denounced Bolsonaro's attempt to empty the coffers of the oil company and the BNDES (Brazilian Development Bank) to harm the next government. "In this period of government alone, more than US$150 billion has already been paid in dividends to Petrobras shareholders, and nothing for investment. And this week they invented the distribution of another US$50 billion from a possible future profit. What is the idea? To empty Petrobras' coffers so that we can't do anything, and you know that this country today cannot refine the amount of gasoline it needs. We used to be gasoline exporters, and now we refine around 79%. That's why there are 390-odd companies importing gasoline from the United States, paying in dollars. Now I'm finding out that they are going to take even more from the BNDES, now, before our inauguration, to also leave the BNDES empty, so that we don't have the capacity to invest."
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