Jair
Bolsonaro pledged to use his presidency to launch a frontal assault
on his “red” political rivals.
The
far-right candidate of the Brazilian election, Jair Bolsonaro vowed
to purge the country of his left-wing political opponents during a
video address Sunday.
“Either
they go overseas, or they go to jail,” Bolsonaro told thousands
of cheering supporters who had packed Avenida Paulista, one of Sao
Paulo’s main arteries, for one of his final campaign acts before
the second round of Brazil elections on Oct. 28. “These red
outlaws will be banished from our homeland. It will be a clean-up,
the likes of which has never been seen in Brazilian history,”
Bolsonaro declared.
He also
mentioned that “crooks” from Brazil’s landless workers'
movement (MST) would be designated as terrorists while the former
president Lula da Silva would be left “to rot in jail.”
Other politicians from the Workers' Party (PT), including his
opponent candidate Fernando Haddad, will face the same fate,
according to Bolsonaro.
“We
are the majority. We are the true Brazil. Together with this
Brazilian people, we will build a new nation,” Bolsonaro
declared, later adding: “We are the voice of freedom. … We do
not want socialism.”
Bolsonaro’s
supporters cheered him with chants of “Brazil, Brazil, Brazil,
Brazil,” and with the candidate’s nickname, “Legend,
Legend, Legend, Legend.”
Progressive
Brazilians and leftist activists were taken aback by his hateful
rhetoric. “Brasil, ame-o ou deixe-o,” tweeted Cynara
Menezes, a Brazilian journalist referring to the infamous slogan of
its 1964-85 dictatorship. “Brazil, love it or leave it.”
Guilherme
Boulos, a young leftist politician, also known as Lula’s heir,
described Bolsonaro’s speech as “typical of an authoritarian
and dictatorial mind”. “We will push on with the
democratic resistance,” Boulos vowed.
Haddad
tweeted, “Bolsonaro has threatened the survival of his
opponents. … We must defend the democratic rule-of-law. How can
people feel safe if he threatens those who think differently from
him?”
Lilia
Schwarcz, a Brazilian historian, said, “The way he spoke … he
is asking people to be violent — this is not democracy. He speaks
like a very authoritarian leader – it reminds us of other regimes.
… We know this film. We know this kind of movie. It is a very
authoritarian one.”
Jose
Roberto de Toledo, a political journalist from the magazine Piaui,
said, “It’s an escalation. As Mussolini would say: ‘If you
pluck a chicken one feather at a time, people don’t notice.’”
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