Massive pot banging protest in Brazil during Bolsonaro’s televised message on pandemic

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Several cities in Brazil registered massive protests this Tuesday night, March 23, in the form of “panelaços’ (pot banging) against President Jair Bolsonaro, while he was addressing the country through a national television chain.

Under the slogan “Fora Bolsonaro!”, thousands of citizens in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Fortaleza, Brasília, Redife, and other cities protested against the government’s inaction towards the Covid-19 pandemic, after the country registered a new record of 3,251 deaths in the last 24 hours.

In addition to banging pots and pans on windows, many protesters also accused the president of committing ‘genocide’.

During his speech of just 4 minutes that was broadcast on radio and TV, the president tried to calm the mood regarding the health situation and stated that 2021 would be “the year of vaccines”, even though in the country little more than 5% of the population of 210 million inhabitants has had access to even one dose.

“We are at a time when a new variant of coronavirus has taken the lives of many Brazilians,” declared the president, who conveyed his “solidarity” to the families of the victims.

“From the beginning, I said we had two great challenges: employment and virus” and “at no time has the government ceased its efforts to preserve lives and maintain jobs,” said Bolsonaro, who for the first time avoided criticizing governors and mayors who have decreed partial confinements to contain the virus.

Tuesday’s pots and pans protests reflected the sharp drop in Bolsonaro’s support detected by recent polls, which show him with the approval of 30% of society and a loss of 10 points in the last three months.

Earlier on Tuesday, in a reserved ceremony, the president had sworn in his fourth health minister in a year of pandemic, a week after appointing him to take on the fight against the health crisis that has already left more than 295,000 dead.

Cardiologist Marcelo Queiroga, 55, “was sworn into office in a private ceremony,” replacing General Eduardo Pazuello, the Health Ministry said in a communiqué.

“The new minister meets the technical criteria and the profile required for the position, with extensive experience in the area, not only of health but of management,” the note added.

The protests increase the pressure against the president after the Supreme Court rejected his request to prevent regional and municipal governments from imposing restrictive measures to try to stop the advance of the coronavirus, at a time when the country is experiencing the worst moment of the pandemic.

Justice Marco Aurelio Mello, the dean among the eleven members of the Federal Supreme Court, denied in an injunction that the decisions adopted by regional or municipal governments are unconstitutional and, therefore, refused to suspend them.

Bolsonaro claims that restrictive measures such as confinements and curfews, by causing unemployment and hunger, have worse effects than the pandemic itself.

According to official data released on Tuesday, in the last 24 hours, 3,251 deaths and 82,493 contagions were registered in Brazil, bringing the total number of deaths in the country to 298,676 and 12,130,019 cases of the disease since February 2020.

The number of deaths on Tuesday was a new daily record, well above the 2,841 deaths recorded on Tuesday of last week, which was so far the highest since the beginning of the pandemic and brings Brazil closer to 300,000 victims by covid, a barrier that could be surpassed this Wednesday.