Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro Finally Speaks But Doesn’t Concede Election Loss

SAO PAULO ― Far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro did not concede his Sunday election defeat to leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva during a brief address Tuesday, but his chief of staff said that transition to the country’s next president will nevertheless begin this week.

Bolsonaro’s brief speech ― he spoke for about 90 seconds ― at the presidential palace in Brasilia broke his nearly 48 hours of tense silence since the results were confirmed on Sunday. He did not expressly acknowledge or accept the results or mention da Silva, who won the race by about 2 million votes (or 2 percentage points).

Instead, he said only that he would “continue to fulfill the constitution.”

Ciro Nogueira, his chief of staff, told reporters in a similarly brief statement that transition proceedings would begin immediately. But the lack of a formal acceptance from Bolsonaro, along with ongoing demonstrations from his supporters across the country, will leave at least some uncertainty hanging over Brazil’s immediate future.

Whether the right-wing leader would accept defeat has always been far from assured: Bolsonaro has spent the last two years spreading conspiracy theories about voter fraud and attacking Brazil’s election system in an effort to undermine his potential defeat.

While many world leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden, and Bolsonaro allies were quick to recognize the result, Bolsonaro himself remained totally silent, sparking concerns that he would try to contest the results. And while his chief communications officer suggested Monday that Bolsonaro would not contest the results, the president’s failure to acknowledge his loss allowed uncertainty to fester and at least some chaos to break out across Brazil.

Since Sunday evening, pro-Bolsonaro truckers have blockaded hundreds of highways and roads in at least 23 Brazilian states in protest of the results. Some of the truckers, a group that has broadly aligned itself with Bolsonaro throughout his presidency, called for military intervention and burned tires to shut down major highways.

Protesters on Monday blocked access to Sao Paulo’s international airport, causing chaos, flight delays and even cancellations that lingered into Tuesday morning.

Brazil’s Supreme Court on Monday ordered the Federal Highway Police, which is closely aligned with Bolsonaro and had refused to break up many of the blockades, to put an end to the protests, and threatened heavy fines to truckers who persisted….