The governor of Bahia, Jerônimo Rodrigues (PT), suggested last Friday, 2, that former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and his voters could all be taken “to the ditch.” The comment was made during the inauguration ceremony of the Nancy da Rocha Cardoso State School, located in América Dourada, and even provoked reactions from the former president. Jerônimo Rodrigues retracted this Monday, 5.
“We had a president who smiled at those who were in the pandemic feeling short of breath. He will pay for his account and who voted for him could also pay the bill. He did in the package.
At X (former Twitter) on Monday, Bolsonaro said the statement is hate speech. “A hate -laden speech that in any civilized scenario should generate immediate repudiation and firm institutional actions. But nothing happened,” Bolsonaro wrote.
“This kind of discourse, coming from a state authority, not only normalizes hatred but encourages the worst: political and even physical murder of those who think differently. It is the institutionalization of barbarism with the varnish of ‘progressive freedom of expression’,” he wrote.
For the former president, the true threat to democracy “is at the top of the power chain, where those who scream for ‘tolerance’ and ‘fight fake news’ are the same ones who, in practice, incite hatred, lies blatantly and remain shielded by a system that has chosen side.”
“The pattern is clear: there is only crime when it suits the system, there is only repression when the target is the opposition,” he added.
Continues after advertising
Federal Deputy Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG) accused the governor of Bahia of adopting an extremist speech. “When I say that if I could, these people killed us, they doubt. And there are still those who believe that we are dealing with only politicians with opposite thoughts – No. They are moved by a genocidal ideology,” wrote the parliamentarian.
This Monday, 5, during a visit to the renovation works of the Castro Alves Theater in Salvador, Jerônimo Rodrigues said it was contrary to any form of violence and claimed that his words were interpreted “out of context”.
“We criticize the way someone desires the death of the other. I am a religious person, and I will never treat any opponent with such a treatment. It was decontextualized (the statement). I presented my nonconformation of how the country was being treated and set the example of the pandemic. If the term ditch was pejorative or strong, I apologize. No one, ”said the governor.
