Tens of thousands of supporters of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro have rallied in the country’s biggest city, in a show of strength against legal challenges that could put him in jail.
The far-right former president, who called the rally in São Paulo after being targeted by a police raid earlier this month investigating an alleged coup attempt, spoke for about 20 minutes to defend himself, while reminiscing about his time in power.
In the speech he refrained from attacking old foes and the supreme court. Allies expressed concern before the event that any remarks against Brazilian authorities or institutions could get him into even hotter water.
Bolsonaro is seeking to show his base is resilient as he is being investigated by federal police over his alleged role in the 8 January 2023 attacks on government buildings by his supporters over his election loss. He wants the dozens of people still in jail for those incidents to get pardons.
Bolsonaro is also accused of illegally receiving jewels from Saudi Arabia during his presidency.
Six blocks of São Paulo’s Paulista Avenue filled with Bolsonaro supporters, many of whom said that he was being persecuted by Brazil’s supreme court and that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva unfairly won his narrow victory in the 2022 election.
Some also carried Israeli flags as a show of defiance to the current president, who has received widespread criticism at home for comparing Israel’s military offensive in Gaza to the Holocaust.
“What I seek is pacification, it is erasing the past,” Bolsonaro said in a speech as he held an Israeli flag himself. “It is to seek a way for us to live in peace and stop being so jumpy. Amnesty for those poor people who are jailed in Brasília. We ask all 513 congressmen, 81 senators for a bill of amnesty so justice can be made in Brazil.”
Bolsonaro denied that he and his supporters attempted a coup when rioters assaulted the government buildings a year ago.
“What is a coup? It is tanks on the streets, weapons, conspiracy. None of that happened in Brazil,” he said.
Bolsonaro is barred from running for office until 2030 due to two convictions of abuse of power, but he remains active in Brazilian politics as the main adversary for left-of-centre Lula. As this year’s mayoral elections loom, candidates have split between the two leaders.
Allies expect Sunday’s demonstration to show that Bolsonaro still holds political strength in deeply polarized Brazil.
“He is not dead, he is competitive,” said congressman Marco Feliciano, a member of Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party, adding Brazil would “turn into chaos” if the former president were to be arrested.
Dozens of lawmakers and some state governors attended the rally, including São Paulo governor Tarcisio de Freitas, who served as Bolsonaro’s infrastructure minister and is seen as a potential successor in Brazil’s right-wing politics.
“He wants to try to show his strength to the supreme court and remain politically viable, even if he gets arrested,” a source close to Bolsonaro told the Reuters news agency, comparing him to Lula, who spent 580 days in prison in 2018-2019 on corruption charges before having his sentence annulled.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report
