“They want to come back at any cost,” Bolsonaro says of Brazil’s center and left-wing parties

In a conversation this morning, June 14, with supporters outside the Alvorada Palace, President Jair Bolsonaro once again attacked his political opponents.

The president said “they want to come back at any cost” to the Presidency, a reference to the PSDB (Brazilian Social Democracy Party) and PT (Worker’s Party) candidacies in the 2022 presidential elections. PSDB  and PT have largely ruled the country during redemocratization after the end of the military dictatorship.

Born together as part of the social-democratic opposition to the military dictatorship from the late 1970s through the 1980s, PSDB and PT have, since the mid-1990s, been the bitterest of rivals in Brazilian politics—both parties prohibit any kind of coalition or official cooperation with each other at any government levels.

“You don’t know what a presidential chair is to wish 2022 for us,” Bolsonaro replied to a supporter who told him she was rooting for his first-round victory next year. “They want to come back at any cost and it’s not just that 9-fingered person, there are more people,” he said, referring to ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and PT politicians.

When hearing the name of the São Paulo governor, Bolsonaro added: “Doria is thirsty for power; he can’t manage his state, but he wants to run Brazil.” Last Saturday, June 12, the governor fined the president R$552.71 (US$109) for participating in a motorcycle caravan without a mask in the city of São Paulo. Also present at the motorcade were federal deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PSL-SP), the president’s son, Infrastructure Minister Tarcísio Gomes de Freitas, considered to be a candidate for the São Paulo state government, and Environment Minister Ricardo Salles.

Asked by one of those present about the potential candidacy of the governor of Minas Gerais, his ally Romeu Zema (Novo), Bolsonaro hesitated. “I’m not going to discuss politics. Minas has two candidates.”