Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday welcomed Time magazine’s readers’ election as “Person of the Year,” days before the newspaper announced its selection for 2021.
With 24% of the magazine’s 9 million votes, who voted online, the far-right Brazilian leader was named the most influential figure of 2021, “for better or worse,” Time magazine announced on Tuesday-half.
According to the magazine, Bolsonaro beat former US President Donald Trump, who is the second most voted by readers, with 9% of the vote, and health professionals working to combat the epidemic, who came in third place, with 6.3%.
“I thank the 2,160,000 voters who voted for me,” the Brazilian head of state wrote in a message posted on the social network Twitter. “We hope that Time magazine will give us this title, out of respect for the election results.” “Congratulations to Donald Trump for second place,” Bolsonaro added, referring to the former US president, who was one of his key allies and whom he has long said he admires.
The winner of the popular vote is not the Person of the Year traditionally chosen by Time editors. The magazine will announce the year number on December 13th only.
Last year, the medal was awarded to US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, even though readers chose “essential workers” in the fight against the pandemic, including health care workers, service workers, delivery and food pantries.
The Brazilian president has taken advantage of a campaign promoted by his followers on social media to encourage voting for the far-right leader, who has also requested support in his traditional Facebook live broadcast.
In the memo announcing Bolsonaro’s victory in the online vote, Time said the “controversial leader, who is running for re-election in 2022, is facing growing rejection of his management of the economy and widespread criticism from politicians, courts and public health experts, for minimizing the severity of COVID-19.” 19 and casting doubts about the vaccine.”
The magazine added that the Brazilian president is under investigation by the Supreme Court, for his wrongly asserting that a vaccine against Covid-19 could increase the chances of contracting AIDS.
“A Brazilian Senate report in October recommended that the president be charged with various crimes related to mismanagement of the pandemic that has killed more than 600,000 people in Brazil. Bolsonaro has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing,” Time added in the statement.
