By Emir Sader on August 25, 2021
Out with Bolsonaro! photo: Elineudo Meira
The president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, rode the anti-politics wave, generated in the demonstrations of 2013 and reinforced in 2016, to take advantage of his situation as an outsider of traditional politics and become the supposed leader of anti-politics. This characteristic always accompanies him, becoming, however, an obstacle for him to govern.
Because of his personality, Bolsonaro no longer adapts to the needs of the politics of aggregation of people, of union of people and political forces. He tends to exacerbate differences and conflicts, which he justifies as something spontaneous, which people like, which would be an intolerant form towards others. But the result of this is the absolute inability to build a bloc of political forces and a set of people to govern collectively.
Because of this characteristic, Bolsonaro reveals an inability to govern. He fails to establish good relations with Congress, the Judiciary, the media and even less with the opposition. He shows no capacity to listen to positions that do not strictly coincide with his own, and even less to take them into account.
To this is added an economic policy of dismantling the State, which includes the radical cutback of resources for social policies, which benefited the vast majority of the population. He promotes the dismantling of the State, with the privatization of public companies that, like Petrobras, had policies that benefited the country and consumers.
More recently, Bolsonaro developed a discourse according to which he claims he cannot govern because he would be hindered by a real war that the Judiciary would wage against him. This offensive actually consists of a clear definition of the separation of powers, establishing what the Executive can and cannot do.
In addition, recent decisions of the Judiciary open processes and even order arrests of people openly preaching a coup d’état, including the violent closure of the Supreme Court, the invasion of the Chinese embassy and a coup d’état on September 7.
In addition, the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) began to demand from Bolsonaro statements that do not disqualify the electoral results of the past elections and the results of the next process, in which he intends to run. It is clear that this is a search, in the style of the US Donald Trump, to question the result and try to prevent the inauguration of the opponent, in this case Lula who is increasingly the favorite to win even in the first round, in the presidential election of 2022.
Bolsonaro reacted with aggressive statements against the ministers of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) and the TSE. He submitted to the Senate requests for the impeachment of two STF judges, as well as a request to the STF so that this court no longer has the prerogative to open cases. In this attempt, he is the subject of four lawsuits against him. With this attitude, Bolsonaro further increases his difficulties in resuming friendly relations with the Judiciary. At the same time, he also hinders the approval by Congress of his proposals, such as the approval of a new member – an evangelical who, according to him, would introduce prayer in the STF – for the STF, as well as the election of a second term of the Attorney General’s Office, which demonstrates absolute personal loyalty to the president and maintains no degree of independence and autonomy.
At a time when, at the polls, Lula increases his advantage over Bolsonaro, he travels the country to reestablish the block of alliances with which he can govern, demonstrating, in a radically contrary way to Bolsonaro, political capacity to unite, to dialogue, to establish bridges with all sectors that, to one degree or another, are or may come to oppose Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro seems to be entering a very dangerous process of self-combustion. Even his economic policy, which used to delight the large business community, is encountering difficulties, with threats of not respecting the spending ceiling – so dear to the neoliberals – in order to spend resources on policies that can recover his dwindling support in research.
The promise of the demonstration for September 7, the largest ever to be held in Brazil, with an attack on the Chinese embassy and the STF and a counter-coup, is a definitive challenge of how far the Bolsonaristas can go. Both in the capacity to mobilize so many people in São Paulo and Brasilia, as well as in bringing the military into this adventure and achieving the announced coup.
The country can no longer bear to live under threats and bluster, with no capacity to produce. At the same time, while threatening and then backing down, Bolsonaro maintains the war against the Judiciary, the Congress and the media. He remains in government, because of the concessions he makes to forces that support him in Congress, but without the capacity to govern, condemning the country to lethargy and a sinking into the economic and social crisis that, according to Lula, Brazil will need two or three years to dig out of.
Source: La Jornada, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English