SAO PAULO — Nearly a full day after Brazilians handed him defeat in a closely contested election, far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has still not acknowledged or accepted the results of his loss to leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The right-wing president’s refusal to formally accept the outcome is hardly a surprise. For the past two years, he has spread conspiracy theories about voter fraud in an attempt to undermine the election and said repeatedly that the only outcome he would acknowledge was one that produced a victory.
But the total lack of reaction from Bolsonaro has left many wondering what Bolsonaro will say or do when he does break his silence.
Da Silva narrowly won Sunday’s election and will return to the presidency that he previously held from 2003 to 2010. Hours after the race’s conclusion, he told supporters who had gathered for celebrations in São Paulo that he had yet to receive a phone call from Bolsonaro.
“I’m half-happy and half-worried, because, starting tomorrow, I have to start worrying about how we are going to govern this country,” da Silva said. “I need to know if the president that we have defeated will allow a transition to take place.”
In online forums, some of Bolsonaro’s supporters have called for him to contest the results. And Brazilian truckers, a group that has broadly aligned itself with Bolsonaro, staged blockades on major highways Sunday night, with some saying they would only relent if the military staged an intervention on Bolsonaro’s behalf.
It’s possible Bolsonaro will still seek to cast doubt on the outcome, although not even his supporters know what to expect when he does finally speak.
Flávio Bolsonaro, one of the president’s sons and a member of the Brazilian senate, broke the family’s total silence Monday afternoon with a tweet that thanked Bolsonaro’s supporters but made no mention of the election results.
“Thank you to everyone who helped us restore patriotism, who prayed, went to the streets, gave your sweat for a country that is working [well] and delivered Bolsonaro the biggest vote of his life!” Flávio Bolsonaro tweeted. “Let’s keep our heads up and let’s not give up on our Brazil! God is in charge!”
It has always been unlikely, experts say, that an effort to undermine the election would succeed at keeping Bolsonaro in power. But Bolsonaro may be in an even weaker position now, given the swift recognition of the results from the international community and leaders of major institutions within Brazil.
U.S. President Joe Biden issued a statement that congratulated da Silva and praised Brazil’s “free, fair and credible” elections less than an hour after electoral authorities confirmed the leftist’s victory. French President Emmanuel Macron, Mexico’s Andrés Manuel López Obrador and other leaders issued similar statements.
Arthur Lira, the head of Brazil’s lower chamber of congress and a key Bolsonaro ally, issued a statement Sunday evening saying the results of a democratic election “should never be contested.” And Damares Alves, a right-wing former member of Bolsonaro’s Cabinet who won a congressional seat earlier this month, issued a statement that acknowledged defeat.
“We lost an election but we haven’t lost our love for our country,” Alves said. “Bolsonaro will leave the presidency in January with his head up, with the certainty of a duty fulfilled and loved by millions of Brazilians.”