The outgoing president went on vacation to the United States and, like Cristina Kirchner and Donald Trump, avoided handing over power to his successor. What did he do during the act.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took over this sunday his third term as president of Brazil. At the official ceremony, however, there was a great absentee: Jair Bolsonaro, outgoing president, who had run for re-election and lost at the polls to the leader of the PT. In his parallel schedule, Bolsonaro spent the weekend in Orlando, United States, where he shared his time Between his delight in fried chicken and photos with followersaway from Planalto.
The now former president of Brazil got on the official plane last Thursday, in his last hours as chief executive of Brazil. The trip surprised everyone, since -despite the fact that had broken the silence into which he plunged after the electoral defeat – had given no sign that he was going to avoid the transfer of command.
fate was Orlando, in the Florida peninsula, where he has a significant fan base. He stayed in a luxurious mansion It would belong to José Aldo da Silva, a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter.
As reported UOL, the house has nine bedrooms. Among the most extravagant variants, Bolsonaro was able to choose a fourth set in the minions movie or, more traditional, leaning towards a resounding American symbol: Mickey Mouse.
In addition, the house was made some renovations in the front to protect privacy of the then president of Brazil. The security staff was also reinforced.
Over there, behind the walls, Bolsonaro celebrated the New Year. And he just went out to do a few runs on comfortable ground.
One of the receptions that Bolsonaro received was in an Orlando condominium with a strong Brazilian community. His collaborators released photographs of the former president hugging or greeting his followers. In a postcard he was seen wearing a club shirt Athletico Paranaense (The president of that club called to vote for him last October and even the team went out on the field with a shirt to support him). In another, he wore a sober dark blue sweater.
In another stop of his rest, on Saturday he made a getaway to a KFC fried chicken joint -Kentucky Fried Chicken, another emblem of the United States-, with the opportune portrait released by his inner circle.
During his tenure and after show a profile of simplicityBolsonaro frequently resorted to showing himself in a situation of lunch in fast food businesses and in passing, attacking agendas that served him to extol your conservatism.
Like Cristina Kirchner, Bolsonaro did not hand over the presidential sash
While he was resting in Orlando, where his 2019-2023 presidential term expired, Lula da Silva received the presidential sash this Sunday. in one episode unprecedented case in Brazill, there was no transfer of command with the predecessor.
In the Planalto Palace, a black woman and chieftain Raoni went up the ramp. Already in front of the president, she placed the presidential sash on him. Beyond Bolsonaro’s absence, Lula’s entourage charged the episode with a strong symbolic attribute. In addition to the two of them, other civilians also took the stage, all representatives of the Brazilian people.
The last antecedent of a foul at the official ceremony in Brazil dates back to 1985when the dictator Joao Figueredo did not want to participate in the handover of command to Jose Sarney (Actually, the president-elect had been Tancredo Neves, but his death before the inauguration meant that Vice Sarney was in charge of the country).
In America, on the other hand, there are closer precedents. In Argentina, Cristina Kirchner avoided the meeting with Mauricio Macri in 2015after Cambiemos won the Scioli-Zannini formula in the elections after eight years of Cristina in the Casa Rosada.
The situation, criticized by the opposition, arose because the current vice president wanted to hold the protocol ceremony in the Legislative Assembly, in Congress. Instead, Macri preferred that she go to La Rosada.
With both parties looking for justifications in the National Constitution, a circumstantial vacuum was generated in the Executive. As the Justice indicated that Cristina should leave her position in the first minute of the day, it was Frederick Pinedo -then provisionally presiding over the Senate- who held the national headquarters during that temporary gapuntil Macri swore and was invested in La Rosada.
The other background is Donald Trump’s. After the elections in which he lost to Joe Biden, the tycoon announced that he would not participate in the Democrat’s assumption.
“One of the few things on which we agree. It is a good thing that it is not presented,” said Biden, who described Trump’s management as “shame”. In fact, in the previous weeks, Congress had been invaded by Trumpist fundamentalists, in what is known as the “Assault on the Capitol”, who sought to prevent Biden from coming to power.
That time, Trump outfrom the seaside club of Mar-a-Lago, in Miami. A few kilometers from there, Bolsonaro followed his admired colleague. And, without having yet acknowledged the electoral fallout and still with allusions to the 2022 elections in his social media headlines, he found refuge.
DS