Brazil’s government has deployed additional armed forces across the country to quell far-right demonstrations, hours after former president Jair Bolsonaro posted a video online questioning the results of October’s election.
Late on Tuesday night, the administration of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who took office on January 1 after the left-wing leader defeated Bolsonaro, said extremist groups were planning nationwide protests on Wednesday night to topple the new president.
The government, citing social media posts calling for “mega national protests to take power”, deployed extra security forces in the capital, Brasília, and the state capital to prevent the demonstrations.
But on Wednesday night, it appeared that calls for protests had failed, with only a handful of protesters arriving in the Brazilian capital.
The threat came days after thousands of pro-Bolsonaro protesters stormed Congress, the supreme court and the presidential palace, demanding the military intervene to remove the left-wing Lula from power.
More than 1,500 far-right activists were arrested after riots on Sunday as police dismantled pro-Bolsonaro camps outside military bases across the country.
The protesters claimed, without evidence, that the October elections were rigged and called for the armed forces to launch a coup.
On Tuesday night, Bolsonaro – who defied tradition by traveling to the US instead of attending the inauguration of his successor – added fuel to the fire by posting a video on Facebook in which he openly questioned Lula’s election victory.
“Lula was not elected by the people. He was elected by the supreme court and the electoral court,” he said, reinforcing the prominent far-right conspiracy theory that the court had rigged the election in favor of Lula.
Bolsonaro deleted the video, but his supporters could interpret it as a call to action. His opponents say this is further evidence of the need to prosecute the former president, who says he will return to Brazil soon to receive medical treatment.
“It’s past time,” said Felipe Neto, a celebrity and critic of Bolsonaro, on Twitter. “Bolsonaro posted a video on Facebook openly saying that Lula was not elected by the people. He immediately attacked [supreme court and electoral court].”
The surge in far-right extremism comes amid new polls showing many Brazilians have concerns about the integrity of the election, which Lula won by less than two percentage points.
According to a survey by Atlas Intelligence, almost 40 percent of respondents said that Lula did not win more votes than Bolsonaro.
The elections, which took place in two rounds, were monitored by many international observers, who considered them free, fair and credible.
Lula, who served two terms as president between 2003 and 2010, has been fighting right-wing extremists since Sunday’s incident. He called them “vandals and fascists [who] should be punished”.
The government asked the Supreme Court to take measures to suppress the protesters, including arrests, blocking of accounts in messaging groups and identification of vehicles involved in the protests.
The crisis cabinet also decided to strengthen security in the country’s capital. Presidential guards, cavalry regiments and military police units were on standby in Brasília.
“The country is on the verge of entering a serious situation again, after the tragic events of Sunday 8, when the world is shocked, watching the attempt to destroy the real and intangible heritage,” said the government’s petition to the Supreme Court. “Re-institutions are called reactions.”
Additional reporting by Carolina Ingizza