Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has hailed the “victory of democracy over authoritarianism”, one year on from the 8 January insurrection in Brasília in which supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro stormed government buildings in an attempt to topple the newly inaugurated leftist government.
Several hundred people gathered in the seat of Congress in Brasília on Monday afternoon for an event marking the first anniversary of what many see as the Brazilian version of the 6 January Capitol attack in the US. Leaders representing the three branches of government took to the stage under a screen emblazoned with the words “Democracy Unshaken” to celebrate the resilience of Brazilian democracy and unequivocally condemn the actions of the violent mob that rampaged through the capital a year ago after refusing to accept their leader’s electoral defeat.
