Only God Will Remove Me from Power, Says Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro as He Vows to Remove Supreme Court Justices.

‘Only God will take me out of Brasilia’, defiant Bolsonaro says

Brazil’s far-right president riles up hundreds of thousands of his supporters at mass rallies denouncing Supreme Court.

Supporters of Bolsonaro march in a show of support in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Tuesday amid deepening political divide in the country [Pilar Olivares/Reuters]

By Sam Cowie

7 Sep 2021

Sao Paulo, Brazil – Hundreds of thousands of Brazilians rallied across the country on Tuesday in support of far-right populist President Jair Bolsonaro and his embattled administration, while calling for the removal of Supreme Court justices.

The demonstrations, encouraged by Bolsonaro who then verbally antagonised the court in speeches at two separate rallies, will likely exacerbate a crisis between the executive and the judiciary that has escalated in recent months.

“Either the head of this power gets in line or this power can suffer what we do not want,” the former army captain said at a demonstration in the capital Brasilia on Tuesday morning, in what was widely considered an unspecified threat against the court.

In recent months, the Supreme Court has authorised investigations into Bolsonaro and his allies for alleged attacks on Brazil’s democratic institutions.

“They release bandits [from prison] and arrest conservatives,” hospital worker Carlos Alberto Juliao, 45, who attended a pro-Bolsonaro demonstration in Sao Paulo, said of the court.

Amid growing scandals, rising inflation, high unemployment and one of the world’s worst COVID-19 death tolls, Bolsonaro’s approval ratings have sunk to record lows.

Elections are scheduled for October next year and opinion polls suggest Bolsonaro would lose by a wide margin against former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of the left-wing Worker’s Party if he decides to run.

Other left-leaning or centre-right candidates, such as the former governor of the northeastern state of Ceara, Ciro Gomes, or current Sao Paulo governor Joao Doria, would also beat Bolsonaro in a second-round runoff, polls suggest.

The far-right leader has however hinted that he will refuse to accept defeat if Brazil’s electronic voting system is not changed for paper ballots, a demand that was recently defeated in Congress.

Bolsonaro has insisted – without evidence – that the electronic system is vulnerable to fraud, a claim rejected by judicial experts and other experts, and which critics say is part of a plan to contest next year’s election results.

“Only God will take me out of Brasilia,” he told a crowd of 114,000 supporters on Sao Paulo’s Paulista Avenue on Tuesday afternoon, according to local military police estimates.

#Al-jazeera

#osutayusuf