‘Bolsonaro deceived you’, says track on truck that traveled SP road

Three trucks with 30 square meters each drove a few dozen kilometers along the Ayrton Senna highway, in São Paulo, this Thursday (23), displaying messages such as “Bolsonaro deceived you”, “Bolsonaro traitor” and “R$ 7/liter – Bolsonaro’s diesel”.

Four years after the truck drivers’ strike that paralyzed the country, the protest takes place at a time of dissatisfaction among the category, an important part of the president’s electoral base. In recent days, the price of diesel has surpassed that of gasoline and ethanol at several stations in the country, something unprecedented according to Sincopetro (a union representing the stations).

The inversion is a reflection of the increase announced by Petrobras last week, which readjusted the price of gasoline in refineries by 5.2% and the value of diesel by 14.2%. With the increase, the price of a liter of diesel hit the R$7 mark.

In May 2018, when the category strike generated a supply crisis in the country, a liter of diesel was sold at gas stations for just over R$4, in corrected values. Jair Bolsonaro (PL), at the time a presidential candidate for the PSL, supported the movement and criticized the readjustments in fuel prices, which, according to him, served to “plug a hole in corruption”.

The action on the roads of this farm (23) was articulated by a group of activist designers and communicators who assume they have already made other interventions across the country, but prefer not to identify themselves. Among the group’s protests are lambe-lambes pasted on Avenida Faria Lima, São Paulo’s financial center, in 2021, with a photo of Economy Minister Paulo Guedes, under the slogan “Faria Loser”, and posters with inflated food prices. advertised as “Bolsocaro”.

Members of the group said that the action was carried out in partnership with truck drivers and that the objective is to hold the Bolsonaro government responsible for what activists call betrayal to the category, illustrated by the soaring price of fuel.

During the afternoon of this Thursday (23), the three trucks traveled parts of the São Paulo highway and circulated through cargo terminals, rest stops and gas stations, places that concentrate truck drivers. According to activists from the group, the idea of ​​the joint protest is to help truck drivers express their frustration and indignation towards the current government.

To pamper the category with which it counts for the elections that take place in less than four months, the Bolsonaro government is studying measures to make possible an aid to truck drivers of R$ 1,000.

The rise in fuel prices is considered by members of Bolsonaro’s campaign as one of the main obstacles to his re-election. The current president is now in second place in the polls of voting intentions, 19 points behind former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) in the intentions for the first round, according to the latest Datafolha.