Today’s official Independence Day celebrations were calm and quiet this morning in Brasília. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took part in the traditional military parade at the Esplanade of Ministries, alongside the head of Congress, Rodrigo Pacheco, and Supreme Court Chief Justice Rosa Weber.
The Brazilian press is calling this year’s Independence Day a “return to normality,” as the previous two September 7 holidays had been hijacked into political rallies by far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro’s supporters did not mobilize to organize demonstrations in favor of the former president. As The Brazilian Report showed this week, allies of the defeated politician joined a campaign for the right-wing to stay at home this Independence Day, understanding that this year’s celebrations are proof that the Armed Forces have bent the knee to Lula.
Pro-Bolsonaro radicals have fallen out of love with the military, having trusted that the Armed Forces would have helped launch a coup to keep the former president in power and prevent Lula from taking over. In social media posts, angry Bolsonaro voters are criticizing the Armed Forces and calling them “watermelons”: with green uniforms on the outside, but red and “communist” inside.
The Lula administration prepared today’s festivities to symbolize “a new moment of unity” in the country. It’s the first major civic event in Brazil’s capital since the January 8 Brasília riots, and the president sees it as a chance to whitewash the military’s crucial role in plotting a coup against him last year.
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