Brazil’s reclusive Bolsonaro has a skin infection, ‘cannot wear pants’

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has barely been seen in public since failing to win re-election – and his VP has now revealed the strange reason why.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has barely been seen in public since failing to win re-election, is holed up in his official residence because of a skin infection on his leg, a newspaper said on Wednesday.

“It is a health issue. He has a leg injury, a skin infection,” Vice President Hamilton Mourao told O Globo on the sidelines of an event at the Planalto presidential palace.

“He cannot wear pants. You want him to come here wearing Bermuda shorts?” Mr Mourao was quoted as saying.

Mr Bolsonaro’s office did not respond to an AFP query seeking comment on his health.

Since losing the October 30 run-off election to leftist icon and former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the far-right Mr Bolsonaro has appeared in public only once – two days after the vote to make brief remarks in which he did not concede defeat or congratulate Mr Lula.

Bolsonaro supporters have refused to accept the result. Picture: Sergio Lima/AFP

So it has been two weeks since he left his Alvorada residence, which is about five kilometres from Planalto, where his offices are.

Mr Bolsonaro is skipping the COP27 climate talks in Egypt and the G20 meeting in Indonesia. He has also been absent from social media, where he was active throughout his term in office, especially with a Facebook live stream on Thursdays.

Since Mr Bolsonaro’s defeat at the polls, supporters dressed in the yellow and gold of the national flag have demonstrated outside military bases to urge the armed forces to intervene and prevent Mr Lula from taking power in January.

It will be Mr Lula’s third term after ruling from 2003 to 2010.

On Tuesday, which was a holiday in Brazil, several thousand such demonstrators turned out. On a normal day it is just several dozen hard core supporters of Mr Bolsonaro that show up to protest.

Thousands gathered outside army headquarters in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, on Tuesday. Picture: Sergio Lima/AFP

‘Brazil is back’

Showered with applause and chants of “Lula!”, the Brazilian President-elect made a splash at a UN climate conference in Egypt on Wednesday, his first foreign trip since his election.

Despite a mixed record on the environment and jail time in his resume, the 77-year-old leftist politician drew crowds curious to hear his promises to protect the Amazon rainforest.

“Brazil is back,” Mr Lula said repeatedly, words his supporters sang during his speech at the COP27 conference in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Hundreds of people packed rooms at two separate events he attended, asking him for selfies and shouting his name.

President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at the COP27 climate conference. Picture: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP

UN security shut the doors when the room filled for his speech, leaving a disappointed crowd outside.

Expectations are high for Mr Lula to protect the Amazon after rampant deforestation seen under the far-right Mr Bolsonaro.

At COP27, Mr Lula vowed to fight deforestation, offered to host UN climate talks in the Amazon region in 2025, and pledged to make Brazil a leader in the global battle against climate change again.

“Lula represents a political change for Latin America,” said Adrian Martinez Blanco, who is attending the climate conference for Costa Rican NGO La Ruta del Clima.

“It is a shift towards the protection of the planet, the Amazon, human rights, the rights of Indigenous people.”

Protesters have called for the military to step in. Picture: Florian Plaucheur/AFP

Climate ‘pariah’

Mr Lula pulled off a huge political comeback to defeat Mr Bolsonaro.

He left office as a blue-collar hero who presided over a commodity-fuelled economic boom that helped lift 30 million people out of poverty.

But he then became mired in a massive corruption scandal and served more than 18 months in prison from 2018. His conviction was later overturned.

“It’s very interesting to listen to him first hand and understand how he captures so much love from his people – while also not necessarily being the best for the country,” said Sofya Levitina, a student at the University of Connecticut, referring to the corruption scandal.

Jair Bolsonaro has barely been seen in public for two weeks. Picture: Evaristo Sa/AFP

Melissa Yokoe Ashbaugh, who is studying at the same US university, said her “impression of the excitement is that he represents coming back around from a populous right-wing wave [that is] anti-environment”.

“It’s sort of the hope of people who are engaged in this sort of climate action space that globally, administrations like his will represent those interests,” she said.

Brazilian climate campaigner Mariana Paoli, who leads global advocacy at Christian Aid, said Brazil had become a “pariah state” under Mr Bolsonaro when it came to climate policy.

“It’s so good to see Lula bringing Brazil back into the fold,” she said in a statement.