Brazil's Temer not to attend Olympics closing ceremony

Brazil's acting President Michel Temer's press office informed on late Monday that he will not attend the closing ceremony of the Rio Olympic Games, which will be held on the evening of August 21 at the world-renowned Maracana stadium.

Regarded as one of the main masterminds of the rather questionable impeachment process of President Dilma Rousseff, which a large share of the population considers a coup, Temer was afraid of the public's reaction to him in the opening ceremony, held on Aug. 5.

He reportedly requested his name not to be mentioned in the speeches of the authorities who spoke in the ceremony. His only appearance was in the end of the ceremony, when he had to declare the Games open, and reactions were as bad as expected: Temer was booed during his entire brief speech.

Since the beginning of the Games, Brazilians have carried out protests, holding out signs with "Out with Temer" written on them in several competitions. At first, the police repressed protesters, even removing some of them forcibly from the arenas. Days later, though, Brazil's Supreme Court ruled that repressing the peaceful protests was unconstitutional.

With the perspective of more signs and hostility from the crowd, Temer decided not to attend the closing ceremony. However, his office said the acting President did not consider attending the ceremony in the first place, as, during the closing ceremony, the host city's mayor transfer the Olympic Games to a representative of the next host city - in this case, Japan's capital Tokyo. His presence was deemed unnecessary.

Japan's representative in the closing ceremony will be Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Though Temer will not attend the ceremony, he may meet with PM Abe.

It is not known whether Temer will attend the Paralympic Games' opening or closing ceremonies. The Paralympic Games runs from September 7-18.

Source : XINHUA