Brazil’s Bolsonaro signals cooperation with transfer of power, but does not concede election defeat, in his address to the nation
By Tom Miles
31 May 2019
The new Brazilian right-wing presidential administration of Jair Bolsonaro (photo) has signaled its readiness to carry out the transfer of power at the presidential level from his predecessor, former President Dilma Rousseff, who left office under pressure from the international community and her political opponents, and to the far right. Bolsonaro’s remarks in a televised address to the nation on April 30 show that the incoming right-wing government will follow through on this threat.
Here is the text of the speech, translated in its entirety:
Hello, I have a few comments about this morning’s speech, which I’d like to make in an order of priority.
First: there was a lot of propaganda on social media about what Bolsonaro said during this speech. In fact, we were not going to go to public with it.
First of all, you’ve had several years to digest what President Bolsonaro said last night, and you haven’t reacted. You haven’t reacted because you think everything he said was false, because he was not clear, or so he said. You haven’t reacted because you don’t have a good handle on what he said. In your speeches and your tweets, you attack him, but don’t give him the chance to respond, because he was too weak.
The president’s address lasted about one hour. In it, he offered us all the chance to digest the reality. He did not go into a specific area, but he made a clear offer of cooperation, as well as a call for dialogue—and he did not say that he was giving up power.
In terms of dialogue, he was very clear that dialogue was the only way to move forward. He said he would sit down with the opposition and with political parties, and give them a chance to debate and to talk; he reiterated that he did not, and would not, recognize any leader as legitimate. He called for a dialogue that was