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Brazil’s Bolsonaro asks supporters to ‘unblock’ roads after election defeat
- Jair Bolsonaro narrowly lost to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brazil’s run-off presidential election
- Some protesters have called for military intervention to keep President Bolsonaro in power
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Brazil’s outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro asked participants in what he said were “legitimate” protests to “unblock the roads” and demonstrate elsewhere as they pushed for military intervention to keep him in power.
The far-right leaders’ supporters are rallying in front of military installations in Brazil’s major cities and have blocked highways in more than half the country’s states.
The demonstrators, unwilling to accept the results of Bolsonaro’s Sunday election defeat to leftist ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, have now clogged autoroutes and caused nationwide disruptions for three straight days.
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“I want to make an appeal to them: Unblock the roads,” Bolsonaro said late Wednesday. The blockages do “not seem to me to be part of legitimate demonstrations”.
“Other demonstrations that are taking place throughout Brazil in squares … are part of the democratic game. They are welcome,” he added.
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After days of silence, Bolsonaro on Tuesday gave a short speech in which he neither accepted defeat nor congratulated Lula on his weekend win, although his chief of staff took the podium afterward to say the president had authorised the transition to a new government.
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