Sawt Falasteen - Lula, Bolsonaro teams start Brazil power transition

Brazil has been on edge since veteran leftist Lula's narrow win Sunday over far-right incumbent Bolsonaro, who remained silent for two days as angry supporters blocked highways across the country, calling for a military intervention to keep him in power.

However, with the blockades losing strength, the wheels of the power transfer were set in motion as vice president-elect Geraldo Alckmin, whom Lula has picked to lead his transition team, met with Bolsonaro's cabinet chief, Ciro Nogueira, in Brasilia.

"The conversation was very fruitful, very objective," Alckmin told a news conference.

"The transition has begun... As Lula said in his victory speech, our task is to unite Brazil. So here we go."

Alckmin, a business-friendly center-right veteran tasked with building bridges with Lula's adversaries, said he would now meet with the president-elect, and that they would begin announcing the full membership of the transition team from Monday.

The head of Lula's Workers' Party (PT), Gleisi Hoffmann, and the transition team's technical coordinator, Aloizio Mercadante, were also present.

Earlier, Alckmin held what he called another "fruitful" meeting with Senate budget rapporteur Marcelo Castro, seeking ways to make key Lula campaign promises fit within an extremely tight 2023 federal budget.

"We have various emergencies," said Workers' Party senator-elect Wellington Dias, who is heading Lula's budget negotiations.

"We're trying to find the necessary amount for each critical point," he told a news conference.

Conservatives scored big election wins in Congress, where Bolsonaro's Liberal Party (PL) will be the largest force -- meaning Lula faces an uphill battle to get legislation passed and tackle problems such as a weak economy, hunger crisis and surging destruction in the Amazon rainforest.

- Hope dims for hardliners -

Alckmin had harsh words for pro-Bolsonaro protesters' road blocks, which had threatened to create economic havoc.

"It's extremely serious to compromise people's health, supplies to hospitals, vaccines, food, fuel. Who's going to pay the damages?" he said.

Officials said there were 74 road blocks Thursday, down from 250 Tuesday, after Bolsonaro issued an appeal to "unblock the roads" to avoid damaging the economy and interfering with people's right to move freely.

But although the ex-army captain has vowed to respect the constitution, he has not acknowledged Lula's win or congratulated him.

Bolsonaro encouraged "legitimate demonstrations" in a video posted online Wednesday night -- raising fears Brazil may still face turbulent times until Lula is sworn in on January 1, and beyond.

Lula, 77, who previously led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, won an unprecedented third term Sunday, capping a remarkable comeback for the ex-metalworker three years after he was freed from prison on controversial, since-quashed corruption convictions.

Bolsonaro supporters reacted furiously, blocking highways with cars, trucks, and tractors and rallying outside military barracks to demand an intervention.

In Rio de Janeiro, a protest outside a local military base had dwindled to several dozen people, who appeared to be losing hope of a pro-Bolsonaro intervention.

"We're going to have a communist dictatorship," 31-year-old protester Jessica dos Santos Ferreira told AFP, calling Lula a "thief."

There were fears Bolsonaro, an admirer of Donald Trump, would seek to stage a Brazilian version of the 2021 riots in Washington following the former US president's own election loss.

But Bolsonaro appeared to find himself isolated after his defeat, as top allies including powerful lower-house speaker Arthur Lira acknowledged the result.

The protesters have meanwhile come under fire for their extreme measures and views in some cases.

Authorities in the southern state of Santa Catarina opened an investigation after one group of hundreds of pro-Bolsonaro demonstrators was filmed making what appeared to be Nazi salutes Wednesday.

In several states, organized football fan clubs broke up the road blocks so they could get to their teams' away games -- winning plaudits on social media from Brazilians exasperated by the blockades.

K.Hassan--SF-PST