Weakened and in a day of protests, Bolsonaro seeks to recover the initiative

RIO DE JANEIRO.- Jair Bolsonaro go through days of bad news. When a poll appeared that showed that would be bulky beaten by Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the second round It was followed – last week – by the presentation of its former Minister of Health Eduardo Pazuello to the Senate, transformed into a theater where the opposition crushes the errors of management of the pandemic. The meeting between former presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Lula was narrowly missing: a meeting with high symbolic content which declared that part of the center-right was ready to converge in 2022 with the left to overthrow the current president.

The Brazilian president faced this Saturday the first national day of street protests in the pandemic. Thousands of people, called by social movements and unions, demonstrated in more than 85 cities across the country against Bolsonaro and they demanded the speed of mass vaccination in the country.

Faced with the wear and tear caused by the parliamentary inquiry and greater political fragility, the Brazilian president started trying to regain control of the agenda. In addition to strengthening his attempt to retain his strong electoral base, he is preparing to multiply appearances in campaign-style acts – such as the motorcycle parade in Rio de Janeiro last Sunday – as the president himself acknowledged. .

“Bolsonaro is in a vulnerable situation”Leonardo Avritzer, political scientist and professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, told LA NACION. “For the first time, he lost control of the Senate and the investigation into the management of the pandemic was left to the opposition. At the same time, with a more important role, Lula forces him to discuss pandemic, deaths and disastrous vaccination policy“

Bolsonaro insisted on Thursday with one of his main obsessions during the Covid-19 crisis: avoid slowing down economic activity. The right has appealed to the Supreme Federal Court for prevent three states from imposing activity restrictions and curfews.

The action, sponsored by the state attorney general’s office, aims to overturn measures in Paraná, Pernambuco and Río Grande del Sur. Publicly, the president had repeatedly threatened to repeal restrictive measures by decree and to use the military to carry out his determination. Finally, in a more harmonious manner, he asked in writing that the closure decrees be taken into account unconstitutional for having violated “the fundamental rights to work, to free initiative and to subsistence”.

“The president is trying to please his base, that’s just a way of saying ‘at least I tried’ not to stop everything, ”added Avritzer, who considered the resource to have very little chance of being taken over. “But at this moment, the president found himself without speech: he cannot make a strong proclamation against the isolation because the progress of the investigation into the management of the pandemic in the Senate weighs on him”.

The right winger will repeat his motorcycle rides across the country, following one he made in Brasilia on May 9 and Rio de Janeiro, marked by large crowds, last Sunday. Three days after reporting symptoms of coronavirus, indicating possible reinfection, the president drove through the city of Rio on a motorbike dragging thousands of people who accompanied a 40-kilometer journey. As he said on Thursday, the next trip could be in Belo Horizonte or Porto Alegre.

“It is a meeting without political leanings, even because I am not affiliated with any political party. It was a movement for freedom, for democracy and to support the president, ”said the president, who is trying to keep his base mobilized.

Almost three months after recovering his political rights, Lula da Silva leads the race for 2022 and it would be imposed by 55% to 32% compared to Bolsonaro, according to a Datafolha poll released on May 12. The worst data for the president that this poll revealed was his own approval rating, with a 24% approval at the lowest level of your mandate.

“Whoever is not happy with me has Lula in 2022,” he said this week to a disciple who asked him to fight more firmly against the governors. In addition to reinforcing the campaign tone, the president has stepped up his travels across the country, mainly in the areas where he is most rejected, the Brazilian northeast.

The economy does not bring good news to the Planalto Palace either. Unemployment reached 14.7% in the first quarter, the Brazilian statistical institute reported on Thursday. This is the worst rate since 2012, when the historic series began. Almost 15 million are online for a job. The northern and northeastern region of the country, without emergency aid until March, pushed negative national data.

The urgency of delivering good news, as the economy rebounds awaits with a slow vaccination, creeps into official discourse.

Now comes the choice? Let’s go for the attack. There will be an improved Bolsa Familia, a productive inclusion bonus … there will be some good stuff to applaud. Everything is correct, done seriously, without breaking the ceiling (of expenditure), ”said the Minister of the Economy, Paulo Guedes, in an interview published by Folha de S. Paulo May 23. Guedes explained that the federal government has spent “three years on the defensive, controlling spending” and is about to change its position.

Conocé The Trust Project