Brazil’s outgoing president Jair Bolsonaro helped foment social tension after losing the country’s elections, and his followers should support a change in administrations, Vice President Hamilton Mourao said Saturday.
“Leaders who were supposed to reassure and unite the nation” instead allowed silence to “create a climate of chaos,” Mourao said during a televised address that didn’t identify Bolsonaro by name.
Mourao, who had a public falling out with Bolsonaro during the administration, urged the president’s supporters to accept the results of the election and fight to preserve democracy.
Bolsonaro flew to Orlando this weekend to stay at the home of a famous Brazilian mixed martial arts fighter and won’t attend the inauguration of his rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday. That left Mourao as acting president on the administration’s final day.
Bolsonaro was widely criticized for failing to publicly accept defeat in the October election, and then remaining silent when supporters blocked roads and publicly called for the military to overthrow the results.
