BRASILIA, Brazil >> President Jair Bolsonaro met briefly Thursday with the envoy coordinating the transfer of power to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, four days after a tight election loss that has sparked protests by his supporters amid his refusal to publicly concede.

The meeting between Brazil’s far-right outgoing president and Vice President-Elect Geraldo Alckmin took place at the presidential palace, according to Alckmin, who heads da Silva’s transition team. The team had earlier arrived in the capital of Brasilia, launching the process that will culminate with da Silva’s Jan. 1 inauguration.

While Bolsonaro declined to publicly concede defeat in his first public comments Tuesday, his chief of staff Ciro Nogueira told reporters he had received authorization from the incumbent for the transition process to proceed.

“It was positive,” Alckmin told journalists Thursday.

— The Associated Press