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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was acclaimed on Wednesday by thousands of people who gathered in Brasilia for the celebration of the country’s Bicentennial of Independence.
“Our freedom is at stake,” Bolsonaro declared at the Alborada Palace, his official residence, before heading to the Esplanade of the Ministries, a central avenue in Brasília where he led a civic-military parade commemorating the 200th anniversary of the country’s Independence from Portugal.
The statement was interpreted as a message to his followers given the elections on October 2, in which he aspires to be reelected against former socialist president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Bolsonaro, wearing the presidential sash, accompanied by his wife Michelle and a group of children, crossed the Esplanade of the Ministries in a Rolls Royce “Silver Wraith” without a hood, donated to Brazil by Queen Elizabeth II of England in 1953.
On the way to the presidential tribune, he was acclaimed by an estimated 40,000 people.
The military, civic parade is attended by the presidents of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa; and of Guinea Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, and Cape Verde, José Maria Neves, two countries that were also Portuguese colonies.
After the presentation of the troops and the institutional ceremony, Bolsonaro plans a political act in the same Esplanade of the Ministries. Then he will move to Rio de Janeiro, where he will hold an electoral rally in front of thousands of supporters.
