Name: Coronavirus: Jair Bolsonaro’s ex-supporters yell ‘Get out!’
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Coronavirus: Jair Bolsonaro’s ex-supporters yell ‘Get out!’

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‘Get out Bolsonaro!’ say ex-supporters of far-right PresidentWe’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.DismisscloseAdvertisementBy Log in, or to save articles for later.Normal text sizeLarger text sizeVery large text sizeAdvertisementRio de Janeiro: Meggy Fernandes voted for Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil’s 2018 presidential election, attracted by the far-right former army captain’s promise to shake up a hidebound political establishment mired in endless corruption scandals.But after watching him jettison his anti-corruption pledges, strike pacts with the politicians he vowed to shun, and, most importantly, botch Brazil’s coronavirus response, Fernandes, 66, now says she was wrong to place her faith in the man some call the .“I’m so revolted by my vote,” she said in a supermarket carpark in Rio de Janeiro, at an unusual pro-impeachment rally convened by right-wing groups. “Bolsonaro is overseeing a terrible government. He’s doing a disservice to the nation. His handling of the pandemic is completely wrong.“Despite repeatedly denying the severity of the pandemic and overseeing a response that has blighted Brazil with the world’s second highest number of COVID-19 fatalities - more than 216,000 - after the United States, Bolsonaro ended 2020 riding high in the polls, buoyed by a generous coronavirus relief package.January has been less kind, however. The welfare program is now over, leaving many poor Brazilians stranded as a second wave gathers steam. Others have been irked by the federal government’s slow and patchy vaccine rollout, and Bolsonaro’s personal pledge not to take any COVID-19 shot (he contracted a mild bout of the disease last year).A recent surge in cases in the northern city of Manaus, which was one of the first places badly hit by the virus during the first wave, has proved to be another stain on the President’s coronavirus response. , leaving hospitals reliant on black-market cylinders, or tanks imported from his longtime foe Venezuela.Support for Bolsonaro has fallen by the largest amount since the beginning of his government in 2019, a Datafolha poll on Friday showed. His administration was rated as bad or terrible by 40 per cent of respondents, compared with 32 per cent in early-December. Just under a third of respondents rated Bolsonaro’s government as good or excellent, versus 37 per cent in the previous poll.In Brasilia, the national capital, though, Bolsonaro seems to be on steadier ground. A majority of Brazilians reject him being impeached, a second Datafolha poll on Friday found. It showed that 53 per cent of respondents were against Congress opening impeachment proceedings, up from 50 per cent in a previous survey. Those favouring impeachment fell to 43 per cent from 46 per cent.AdvertisementBolsonaro-backed candidates are also expected to win control of Congress next month. His growing willingness to discuss political horse-trading has helped him secure a base of centre-right politicians who could scotch any chances of impeachment.But it is exactly those partnerships that brought out a smattering of protestors to a scorching parking lot in Rio’s Barra da Tijuca neighbourhood on Sunday.Convened by Vem Pra Rua and Movimento Brasil Livre, two right-wing groups whose nationwide protests in 2016 helped precipitate the impeachment and later removal of former leftist President Dilma Rousseff, Sunday’s protests were full of disgusted former Bolsonaro supporters. Similar events took place in Sao Paulo and Brasilia on Sunday, after left-wing pro-impeachment protests took place across the country on Saturday.Although turnout in Rio was thin, if the numbers swell in the months ahead, it may pose a problem for the President ahead of 2022, when he is certain to seek re-election.Like others at the protest, Patricia Resende, a 57-year-old civil servant, said Bolsonaro was unlikely to be impeached.She said many of her friends who voted for Bolsonaro still liked him. But Resende said she had come to “take a stand” against what she described as his “electoral swindle.““He has been a coronavirus denier,” she said.Former president of the Supreme Court Carlos Ayres Britto, former presidential candidate Ciro Gomes and popular singer Chico Buarque have called for the President to face impeachment for his response to the pandemic. A leading newspaper, O Estado de Sao Paulo, also published an editorial calling for his impeachment on Friday.“We ask for an impeachment of Bolsonaro because it is not just a crime he committed. The way he treated the pandemic,” said Tiago Sussekind, a 21-year-old law student who joined the Saturday protest in Rio.“He spent money on ineffective remedies instead of investing in the vaccine and in oxygen”, he added in reference to for COVID.Reuters, APLog in, or to save articles for later.Advertisement

‘Get out Bolsonaro!’ say ex-supporters of far-right PresidentWe’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.DismisscloseAdvertisementBy Log in, or to save articles for later.Normal text sizeLarger text sizeVery large text sizeAdvertisementRio de Janeiro: Meggy Fernandes voted for Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil’s 2018 presidential election, attracted by the far-right former army captain’s promise to shake up a hidebound political establishment mired in endless corruption scandals.But after watching him jettison his anti-corruption pledges,...

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Gabriel Stargardter

The Sydney Morning Herald - Australia's leading news source. Independent. Always.

Coronavirus: Jair Bolsonaro’s ex-supporters yell ‘Get out!’

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