SAO PAULO (AFP) – Urged on by beleaguered ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, tens of thousands of demonstrators from Brazil’s political right took to the streets on Saturday amid a free speech tussle that has seen social media platform X suspended in the country.
Arch-conservative Bolsonaro denounced the judge who ordered the suspension of X.
“We must put a stop to those who exceed the limits of our constitution,” he told the sea of protesters clad in the yellow and green colours of the Brazilian flag, referring to Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes.
The demonstration in Sao Paulo took place on Brazil’s Independence Day, in counter-programming to a military parade in the capital Brasilia overseen by leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
In Sao Paulo, Latin America’s largest city, posters and banners called for ‘democracy’ and ‘liberty’, as well as the ouster of Moraes, who ordered X blocked in Brazil a week ago.
The move was the culmination of a legal spat that began when Moraes ordered the suspension of several X accounts belonging to Bolsonaro supporters.
“I’m here to demand the removal of Alexandre de Moraes; what he is doing is unacceptable,” 35-year-old architect Emilia Lapolli told AFP.
“He’s ignoring the constitution and making laws as he pleases.”
“I want to protest against the madness taking place in our country. We’re being subjected to censorship,” said one demonstrator, retired computer engineer Sergio Luiz Barreira.
Rally organisers Silas Malafaia declared that Moraes “must be impeached and go to jail! Criminals belong in jail!”
Bolsonaro, 69, stopped briefly at a hospital in the morning due to a “bad flu”, his aides said, while adding that it would not keep him from appearing at the rally.
He clearly hoped to use the march to demonstrate his political clout a month before municipal elections in the deeply divided country.
The rally attracted about 45,000 people, according to researchers at the University of Sao Paulo.
