President Temer Says that Brazil Has a 'Tendency to Seek Authoritarianism'

11/16/2017 - 10h58

President Michel Temer declared on Wednesday (the 15th), Proclamation of the Republic Day, that people are "worried about what is going on in Brazil", and that the country "has a tendency to seek authoritarianism".

He delivered his speech in Itu (101 km from São Paulo), the city that hosted the 1873 convention that discussed the creation of the Republic.

"If we don't revere and adhere to certain constitutional principles, our tendency is to always seek authoritarianism, centralization", he said, before moving through a historical review of the periods in which the country has lived through dictatorships in the 20th century, including the Getúlio Vargas government and the military regime.

	Jorge Araujo/Folhapress
	President Michel Temer in Itu

According to Temer, these movements weren't only the result of coups against the state, but because "the people wanted it as well".

"Ideally, we would never have had this centralization, authoritarianism, during the periods that we did in the past."

Outside the event, protesters organized by the PT and PSOL parties held manifestations.

Inside the ceremonies, José Eduardo Bandeira de Mello, Vice-President of FIESP (Industrial Federation of the State of São Paulo) and a personal friend of Temer's was given the title of honorary citizen of Itu and said that "never before in this country has someone been so betrayed or ensnared as this President".

Temer, in his acknowledgements, mentioned measures undertaken during his administration, such as limits on spending and labor reform, and singled out "many attempts to paralyze the government", referring to businessman Joesley Batista's plea-bargain testimony and charges from the Federal Prosecutor General against him.

Translated by LLOYD HARDER

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