BRASILIA – Brazilian authorities opened an investigation yesterday into former Formula 1 world champion Nelson Piquet, who was recorded in a video calling for the death of President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Lula won last Sunday’s presidential runoff against President Jair Bolsonaro, of whom Piquet is an avowed supporter, by a narrow margin – 50.9% of the vote against 49.1%.
Since Sunday, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters have blocked highways to oppose Lula’s victory, while others amassed in front of barracks calling for military intervention.
“Let’s get the son of a b*tch Lula out,” Piquet says in the video that circulated on social media showing the racer participating in one of the protests.
“Lula over there, in the cemetery,” he adds.
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement that Piquet’s remarks “encourage the impeachment of the elected government, as well as the practice of violence against Lula da Silva,” who will assume the presidency on January 1, 2023.
“Piquet’s statements are not limited to mere expressions of opinion, but a concrete form of incitement directed at the population,” the public prosecutor’s office said.
“He is a person of public notoriety and should therefore know that his statements have the potential to reach hundreds of thousands of people,” it added.
Piquet, a three-time F1 world champion, is due to appear before the Federal Police to testify.
Earlier this year, Piquet was involved in another controversy when he used a racist term to refer to seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton, which earned him condemnations from F1 and drivers. – AFP, November 4, 2022
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