Bolsonaro has fueled hate speech and violence in Brazil (Douglas Magno/AFP)
After four years in power, Brazilian far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has left no significant “friend” behind. Even former US President Donald Trump was not hated to the level of the populist Brazilian politician.
As Brazil heads to an extraordinary presidential election on Sunday, opinion polls suggest that… Former President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva wins, on Bolsonaro, from the first session. It is difficult to talk regarding the latter without thinking regarding the amount of “services” he provided to large lobbies in Brazil for 4 years, which do not seem to help him to raise his popularity, in contrast to the hostilities, failures and chaos left by his mandate, which makes even Lula’s staunch enemies, They don’t mind his coming back.
Among them, Democratic US President Joe Biden seems most enthusiastic regarding seeing the current Brazilian president leave office. Washington has become convinced of the need to deal with Lula, who appears to be a less left-wing version of his presidency (2003-2010), so that he is heading towards the center following his alliance with the right-wing Geraldo Alcmin, to be vice president if he wins with Lula da Silva.
In general, Bolsonaro alienates the followers of his speeches, policies and propaganda methods, and the phrases he utters on social media are his weapons and the weapons of his children, family and supporters who are most effective in mobilizing.
Supporters of Bolsonaro are a mixture of the military, powerful lobbies and evangelicals
Jair Bolsonaro’s “Army”
This politician, who was elected President of Brazil in October 2018, following defeating the “Labour” candidate Fernando Haddad in the second round, is mobilizing an “army” of supporters, who do not hesitate to call it his “private army”, and they represent a mixture of members of the security and military institutions that He originally belonged to it, and the arms and mineral lobbies, and all those who benefited from the amount of changes he has made in the state since he came to power.
In addition to these, the evangelical sect, which still largely supports him, is the one who utters “in the name of God”, especially with the fear of “workers” returning to power. But all this does not help the misogynistic president who wishes the country remained under a dictatorship, and does not hide his admiration for the military coup in Brazil in 1964, to raise his popularity, which makes him threaten a new “coup” if he loses the elections.
and later He came to power in 2018. On the back of the alliance of the Brazilian right and the army and the support of the evangelicals, aiming at the left and pledging to be president to fight the system, Bolsonaro did not meet the aspirations of the Brazilians, who continued with his era the political, economic and social decline, while his voters aspired to close a political chapter in their country, which has been revolving in a spiral of crises. successively since 2013.
Bolsonaro did not live up to popular expectations, following the Brazilians opposed to the left celebrated, in October 2018, the loss of the “workers” candidate in the streets of Brazil, while the president-elect was reminding through “Facebook”, that he chose to deliver a victory speech through it, his campaign slogan. Brazil is above all, God is above all people.
Bolsonaro revolutions
It was not long before the new president at the time replaced the civil public servants, in most departments, with With members of the armywith an unprecedented privatization campaign in state institutions, in parallel with enabling his children and family to penetrate its joints and accumulate wealth.
This matter, Bolsonaro did not do it “shyly”, but in an exclusionary and public manner, which has always made him at odds with influential political parties, such as the classic Brazilian right, which the current president sowed a rift between him and the army. Bolsonaro also turned once morest the Supreme Court, which had previously facilitated the exclusion of the left, while strengthening the power of gun lobbies and all groups greedy for the riches of the Amazon rainforest.
Two things constituted two distinguishing signs in the Brazilian regression policy during the Bolsonaro era: the Corona crisis and the Amazon crisis. As for the post-Trump relationship with the United States, it had the role of resembling the last fig leaf of his disastrous era, following he did not hide his alliance with Vladimir Putin’s regime in Russia, and continued the policy of undermining democracy at home.
The coronavirus crisis has represented a crucial juncture between the far-right president and the majority of Brazilians
Bolsonaro and the dismantling of the Brazilian state
In general, during his 4 years in office, Bolsonaro has continued the policy of “dismantling” the state, popularly defining and demonizing the “enemies”, from the left to pro-choice, secular, women (known for his sexist statements), homosexuals, and even indigenous peoples During his first term, those who witnessed an unprecedented decline in their rights or in the protection of their lands and properties, their lives also became more vulnerable.
Bolsonaro fueled hate speech and violence in Brazil, which turned into a tangible reality, as following he began his reign “virtually” through a speech on “Facebook”, he took to the street, where his supporters gather twice a month in several cities, and perform provocative displays with their motorcycles and weapons. Bolsonaro took advantage of these, every time a conflict broke out between him and any institution in the state, whether parliament or the Supreme Court.
The military participated in his rallies and demonstrations in support of him, while the killing of a supporter of Lula, last June, the discovery of his body in the Amazon, and the confession of his killer in support of Bolsonaro, or the liquidation of environmental activists, sounded the alarm regarding the violent decline that the country has reached.
Among the most prominent “accomplishments” of Bolsonaro, in addition to his overwhelming popularity among the army, is his flooding of the country with weapons, and the opening of the Amazon to all those lurking with its natural resources, without the Brazilian president concealing his unparalleled hostility to environmental groups and environmentalists.
On another front, the Corona crisis constituted a decisive juncture between the far-right president and the majority of Brazilians, who lived through the disaster of the health crisis in all its details, which amounted to a demand for an investigation of his performance during the crisis, which may Up to the point of committing a crime humane.
Brazil lost more than 600,000 citizens as a result of being infected with Corona, while Bolsonaro did not facilitate the arrival of vaccines, He refused to acknowledge its usefulness, warning the Brazilians That they might turn into “monkeys” if they were vaccinated.
Political presenters in Brazil recount how they used to bring Bolsonaro, a former army general and a Brazilian lawmaker from Rio de Janeiro, for eight years prior to his accession to the presidency, how they brought him for television interviews, before he came to power, just to assure the citizens The decline of Brazilian politics during the previous decade.
Today, Bolsonaro’s speech has become a source of danger for the country, according to many followers. After he built his campaign in 2018 on the demonization of “cultural Marxism”, today he is leading the presidential campaign once more With the slogan of questioning all the foundations of the state Brazilian, from the electoral system to the credibility of the elections, to the Brazilian democracy, threatening to overturn the results if he loses the race, while observers warn once morest the army’s involvement in its plans, and bloodshed.
(The New Arab)
