Home » Brazilians take to the streets against Bolsonaro and corruption – Pierre Haski

Brazilians take to the streets against Bolsonaro and corruption – Pierre Haski

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Jair Bolsonaro appreciated being compared to Donald Trump when the latter was in power, and he borrowed more than one element from the former US president’s repertoire. For example, last week he declared that he would not accept the result of next year’s presidential elections if there were fraud (ie, if he were to lose).

Right now the political climate in Brazil is explosive, and not just because of the elections. What prompted Brazilians to demonstrate en masse in big cities over the weekend is the accumulation of corruption cases around the president.

While the country exceeds 520,000 deaths from covid-19, with one of the highest death rates per inhabitant on the planet, two vaccine-related scandals involve Bolsonaro, who in one case was directly warned of some irregularities by an employee of the ministry of health, but did nothing. Whether it is indifference or complicity, his responsibility is called into question in both events.

The return of Lula
As happened to Trump, the Brazilian president risks dismissal, but the long and complex procedures are unlikely to lead to the early termination of his mandate.

This means that Bolsonaro’s fate will be decided at the polls in 2022, and the path up to that point promises to be complicated.

It should be remembered that this former far-right soldier was elected in 2018 thanks to corruption allegations against former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, sent to prison by a judge whose political prejudices were later discovered and who was appointed minister of justice from Bolsonaro. Later Lula was exonerated and released from prison, and is likely to be a presidential candidate next year in which he is already considered the favorite.

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Trumpian language
The fact that the elected president in a “clean hands” climate is involved in various scandals (linked not only to vaccines but also to the deforestation of the Amazon by large private groups) has a paradoxical flavor that surprises only those who believed to his words.

Would Bolsonaro accept a defeat next year? The president has stated that he will not accept the result if there is fraud. But in reality these are code words in the Trumpian language that suggest the intention to reject an unfavorable verdict at the polls.

In the polarized context that has characterized the country for three years, Bolsonaro’s is an irresponsible attitude that risks pitting one part of Brazil against the other. The damage caused by the bad example from Washington is evident in the story: if the president of the United States allows himself to challenge the institutions then the others can do so too.

However, Brazilian society has mobilized and remains vigilant. Jair Bolsonaro has alienated the support of large sections of the population, starting with all those who lost someone during the pandemic. The mobilization is likely to continue to grow until the vote is expected in fifteen months. At stake is the future of Brazil, after the lost years due to an apprentice dictator who did not have what it takes.

(Translation by Andrea Sparacino)

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