Thousands of people protest in Brazil against the bill that could grant Bolsonaro Amnesty

On Sunday, tens of thousands of Brazilians joined demonstrations in cities in the whole country to protest a bill that could lead to the reception of former president Jair Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro was found guilty of plotting a coup earlier this month and was sentenced to 27 years in prison. He will remain under house arrest until his lawyers have exhausted all calls.

But the former leader’s allies in the Chamber of Deputies accelerated a bill that could see Bolsonaro and his co-accused spared the prison.

The demonstrators also expressed their anger against the adoption by the lower chamber of a constitutional amendment which would make it more difficult to launch criminal procedures against the legislators.

Under the proposal, the members of the Congress should give their approval – in a secret ballot – before a legislator can be charged or arrested.

The criticisms nicknamed him the “bill on banditry”, but the members of the Congress who supported him said that it was necessary to protect them from what they said was “overtaking”.

The proposed constitutional amendment will now go to the Senate.

Sunday demonstrations had the support of unions, social groups and leftist political parties and attracted tens of thousands of participants in several major cities.

Many chanted “No Amnesty” and held the signs qualifying the “drowsiness” congress.

During the event in Rio de Janeiro, the veterans singers Chico Buarque, Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso entertained the crowd.

The demonstrations also attracted the support of President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva, who wrote on X: “I am with the Brazilian people. Today’s demonstrations show that the population does not want impunity or amnesty.”

President Lula also declared that he would oppose his veto to the amnesty bill if the Senate would be adopted by the Senate.

The anti-amnist demonstrations occurred two weeks after the supporters of former President Bolsonaro went to the street to denounce the legal proceedings against him.

The rival steps are a sign of the way in which divided Brazilians remain during the Bolsonaro trial.

A majority of judges from the Supreme Court found that Bolsonaro and his seven co-accused had conspired to try to cling to power after losing the elections against Lula in 2022.

The court said that even if their efforts to launch a coup had failed due to the lack of support from the main military leaders, it had led to the attack on the Congress, the Supreme Court and the Presidential Palace on January 8, 2023 by thousands of supporters of Bolsonaro.

The order was quickly restored and more than 1,500 people were arrested, some received long sentences.

The Liberal Party of Bolsonaro has defended an amnesty for them and for the ex-president since.

But those who gathered on Sunday during the demonstrations shouted “prison for Bolsonaro” and many told local journalists that they “fought for Brazilian democracy”.

A survey published by the DataFolha survey on September 16 suggested that 50% of respondents thought that Bolsonaro should go to prison, while 43% of the 2,005 people interviewed said it should not be imprisoned.