This is the final word for the outgoing Brazilian president.

Jair Bolsonaro, who did not recognize his electoral defeat, bade farewell in tears to his supporters on Friday, December 30, without specifying whether he would attend the investiture on Sunday of his successor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. 

"The world will not stop turning on January 1 (...) We have a great future ahead of us," assured the outgoing far-right head of state.

"We lose battles, but we don't lose the war," added the man who was beaten by a narrow head in the October presidential election by left-wing leader Lula. 

Jair Bolsonaro is due to leave Brazil very soon for a trip to the United States, the general secretariat of the presidency having authorized the departure from the territory of members of the personnel responsible for the security of the "future ex-president" for a trip to Miami "from January 1-30, 2023," according to Friday's Official Gazette. 

Jair Bolsonaro did not mention this trip but spoke directly to his followers who continue to camp outside the barracks or Army HQ in Brasilia and other cities to demand military intervention to prevent Lula to take office. 

"I never thought I would get this far," said Jair Bolsonaro, crying, before declaring: "at least we delayed for four years the collapse of Brazil with this harmful leftist ideology".  

"I gave the best of myself," continued the outgoing president, most of whose analysts consider the balance sheet of his four years in office to be very bad. 

"Coward!", "Shame!"

In front of his official residence in the Alvorada Palace, demonstrators who followed the live transmission shouted "coward!", "shame!". 

Since Lula's victory, which he has never congratulated, Jair Bolsonaro has lived almost as a recluse in Brasilia and has locked himself in silence. 

He spoke for the first time about the failed bombing in Brasilia a week ago by a man who said he was a supporter of the incumbent president seeking to sow "chaos" ahead of the inauguration and "prevent the 'establishment of communism in Brazil' under Lula. 

"Nothing justifies this attempt at terrorism," said Jair Bolsonaro. 

That failed attempt to blow up a fuel truck, along with acts of vandalism by other Jair Bolsonaro supporters this month, prompted authorities to deploy an unprecedented security contingent for the swearing-in ceremony. Sunday. 

With AFP

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