BRAZILIAN opposition politicians and state governors have condemned President Jair Bolsonaro after he joined an Army Day rally calling for a return to military dictatorship.

Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB) president Luciana Santos said the president had “crossed all limits” at the rally, which was “an attack on democracy which we cannot tolerate.”

Mr Bolsonaro broke his government’s own social-distancing guidelines to attend the protest of several hundred outside the army headquarters. He did not specifically address the demonstration’s demands for congress and the Supreme Court to be shut down and the army to take over, but told them: “I am here because I believe in you. You are here because you believe in Brazil.”

The far-right leader has previously called for celebration of the anniversary of the 1964 military coup that ushered in 21 years of dictatorship, torture and executions, and is pushing for revisions to school curriculums to portray it positively.

But his attendance at Sunday’s rally “crossed the rubicon,” Brazil’s Bar Association president Felipe Santa Cruz declared.

The governors of Maranhao (Flavio Dino), Pernambuco (Paulo Camara) and Ceara (Camilo Santana), of the Communist Party, Socialist Party and Workers Party respectively, condemned Mr Bolsonaro’s grandstanding at a time of national crisis.

At its first ever videoconference central committee meeting at the weekend the PCdoB slammed the president as an “agent of chaos” pursuing a “policy of death” that was aggravating the spread of Covid-19 across the Latin American country.

“In recent years we have experienced a real crusade in favour of the destruction of the state and the dismantling of public policies, including important programmes such as Mais Medicos (More Doctors),” Ms Santos said.

Brazil had entered the crisis with 11.6 million unemployed and 26.2 million underemployed, with the government’s attacks on social security and workplace rights leaving tens of millions of families especially vulnerable to the economic dislocation caused by the crisis, she pointed out.

Only under tremendous pressure from the left had authorities been forced to offer emergency monthly aid of between 600 and 1,200 reals per family (£90-180), up from its original offer of just 200 (£30).

Ms Santos called for “a broad movement, a front for national salvation” comprised of social forces, parties and trade unions to deliver the protections people need and change the country’s political direction.