EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has backed the new Brazilian head of state Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva after supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed the government district in Brasília.
“The EU condemns the anti-democratic acts of violence that took place in the heart of the government district of Brasília on Sunday 8 January,” Borrell said last night. The EU reiterated its full support to President Lula and expressed its solidarity with the democratic institutions that had been targeted in this attack. “Brazilian democracy will triumph over violence and extremism,” it said.
Brazil’s political leaders, above all ex-President Bolsonaro, must “act responsibly and ask their supporters to go home,” warned the EU foreign policy chief. The right place to resolve political differences is in Brazil’s democratic institutions and not in the violence in the streets.
Klingbeil: “We democrats stand together”
In Germany, too, there were reactions from politicians. “On behalf of the SPD, I condemn the attacks on Brazil’s democratic institutions in the strongest possible terms,” SPD national chairman Lars Klingbeil wrote on Twitter. “We have full solidarity with President Lula, our sister party PT and the Democrats in Brazil! We Democrats stand together,” the tweet continued. Klingbeil repeated the same statement in the Portuguese tweet.
A week after the end of the term of office of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, radical supporters of the right-wing ex-military stormed the government district in the capital Brasília. They invaded Congress, the Supreme Court and the government seat, Palácio do Planalto, on Sunday. According to media reports, security forces brought the building back under control after several hours. Around 200 suspects were arrested.
