The former president () said this Monday (25) that the state of siege was studied at the end of his government, but denied that he led the plot for a coup d’état.
“A coup d’état is a serious thing. (…) All the Armed Forces have to be involved, otherwise there will be no coup. Nobody is going to stage a coup with a retired general and half a dozen other officers. What they are saying is absurd” , said Bolsonaro in the arrival area for authorities at Brasília airport.
“On my part, there was never any discussion of a coup. If someone came and asked me for a coup, I would say, okay, okay, the ‘after day’? And the next day, what’s it like? What’s the world like before us. ( …) The word coup was never in my dictionary.”
Bolsonaro also said that he did not know of or discuss plans that would involve arresting or killing the elected president (), vice Geraldo Alckmin (PSB) and the minister of the (Supreme Federal Court).
“Never forget it. Within the four lines there is no death penalty”, stated the former president.
Bolsonaro said that the version that there was a plan to assassinate authorities was “played” to “give a demonstration that ‘look, we played outside the four lines'”.
He also reproduced arguments from his defense and allies that no possible coup plan was put into practice. “I’m not a jurist, but in my opinion nothing has been initiated. We cannot start punishing and wanting to punish crimes of opinion, of thought”, declared the former president.
Last week, under suspicion of the crimes of attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, attempted coup d’état and criminal organization, the penalties for which range from 12 to 28 years in prison, not counting aggravating factors.
Investigators identify suspects on the various coup fronts in 2022, including attacks on the electoral system and discussions about a draft decree to annul the results of the elections.
The PF is still investigating the document called “Planning – Punhal Verde Amarelo”, which would have been created by the former number 2 of the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic. The plan would include the possibility of killing Lula, Alckmin and Moraes.
According to investigations, Fernandes printed the plan on November 9, 2022 at Palácio do Planalto. Around 40 minutes later, he would have gone to Palácio do Alvorada, the official residence of the Presidency then occupied by Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro did not comment on several of the specific points of the investigation, especially because allied politicians and supporters were summoned, making it difficult to ask the former president.
When denying the coup plot, he said that all measures “within the four lines” of the Constitution were studied, including an extreme measure, the state of siege.
The includes two possible states for cases of breakdown of the social order and the establishment of wars or conflicts, whether internal or external: the state of defense, as mentioned in the draft that targeted the , and the broader state of siege.
The state of defense is one of the instruments provided for capable of expanding the powers of the head of the Executive, but, according to experts, it would be unconstitutional in the case cited by Bolsonaro because it would represent undue interference by the Executive in the Electoral Court.
The state of siege is the instrument capable of further restricting individual freedoms, it should only be used in the case of a declaration of war, response to possible attacks from other countries or extreme instabilities, which cannot be resolved with the state of defense.
In February 2024, PF agents found a draft in Bolsonaro’s office at the PL headquarters in . The document provided for a declaration of a state of siege and the decree of a GLO (Guarantee of Law and Order) operation after the defeat in the elections. Another version was previously found at the home of former minister Anderson Torres, declaring a state of defense at the TSE headquarters.
Since February, Bolsonaro has adopted the discourse that a coup “is a tank in the street”, and not “using a “, and that there is no coup via a state of siege.
“Although the state of siege was not a coup, no one from the Republic and Defense councils was summoned to plot or put the proposed state of siege decree on paper,” Bolsonaro said that month.
In this Monday’s interview, Bolsonaro once again criticized Minister Alexandre de Moraes, stating that “the same person does everything and, in the end, votes to condemn whoever.”
