They now welcome each of his interventions: Wednesday evening, again, a large panelaço (pan concert) resounded in several cities in Brazil, Rio, Sao Paulo, Brasilia and Porto Alegre, to protest against the calamitous management of the coronavirus crisis by Jair Bolsonaro. The third in just two days.
"Fascist! "," Bolsonaro outside! "," Go get fucked …! " Confined in their apartments, with a ladle or spatula, on stoves or on pots, a part of the country has therefore decided to drum up its anger and make its threatening voice heard. Because the panelaços here carry a message heavy with meaning: it was they who punctuated, four years ago, the dismissal of the leftist president Dilma Rousseff.
With 4 deaths, 428 confirmed cases and more than 11,000 suspected cases, Brazil is indeed reached by Covid-19. The epidemic is now hitting practically all regions, and right up to the top of the state: on Wednesday, nothing less than the President of the Senate, the Minister of Energy and the head of the institutional security cabinet (GSI) and arms Bolsonaro's law, Augusto Heleno, tested positive for the coronavirus. According to a preliminary study by Oxford researchers, revealed by the online newspaper Intercept, the epidemic could kill up to 478,000 people in the country.
" It will pass "
But until recently, the President of Brazil stood out for his denial, carelessness, and even irony. For Jair Bolsonaro the coronavirus was just one "Fantasy", a "hysteria", even a " pregnancy " – "It will pass (…), one day a child will be born", he tried to explain. Tested negative twice with coronavirus, the head of state did not hesitate, Sunday, to take a bath in the crowd among his supporters, and claimed, Tuesday, that he would organize without fail, March 21 , a big party with friends and family to joyfully celebrate its 65 years.
Is it the effect of humiliating casserole concerts? Or the combined pressure of military elites, the medical profession, parliamentarians and economic agents? Wednesday, Bolsonaro finally seemed to realize the magnitude of the crisis. In a single day, no less than two press conferences were organized by the president, surrounded by a slew of ministers, including the Minister of Health, Luiz Henrique Mendetta, who had been struggling for days to reason with the head of the 'State: all seated at a long table facing the public, aligned and masked, in a scene of the most anxiety-provoking.
