Bolsonaro and method of shock strategy | …

Page12 in Brazil

From Brasilia

The chaos strategy applied by Jair Bolsonaro during these first three months of government was a success. Leaflet said yesterday morning that his clashes with Congress are "a summer rain" that will occur when the "young deputies" will gain experience. In the face of storms, the best thing to do is to say "Brazil foremost, God foremost", has recommended and predicts that "other problems will come".

This good mood suggests that he did not know that the dollar opened on Thursday by overcoming the four-way barrier and that the newspapers mention his lack of statesman attributes manifested in these eighty-seven days of management. characterized by a succession of scandals and disputes. A permanent crisis This week, his trial with the head of deputies, the conservative Rodrigo Maia, was relaunched and controversy with former political prisoners was sparked by his exaltation of the 1964 coup that took place leads to a government that, according to him, is not a dictatorship. "No regime is wonderful, and where did you see a dictatorship deliver the government peacefully?" It was not a dictatorship, "said the president. The same or similar said the leader of the ruling bloc in the Senate, Major Olimpio. And something similar, said the representative of the government to the Deputies, Joyce Hbadelman.

The president arrived in Brasilia from San Pablo. Yesterday, he had suspended at the last minute the visit of a university where students were waiting for him to shout "fascist" and "golpista".

Last week, he sparked another controversy by insulting Brazilian immigrants residing in the United States while they were receiving Donald Trump. Before leaving for Washington, he was criticized for intimidating two journalists who were aware of the relationship between the "Bolsonaro clan" (formed by the leader and his sons) with the parapolitic militia who murdered Marielle Franco in Rio de Janeiro. Janeiro. He attacked columnists with one of the dozens of false news posted on his Twitter since January 1st. A first reading of this ever bellicose behavior indicates that he was counterproductive: in two and a half months, he lost fifteen points of popularity and became the president with the worst image at the beginning of his tenure. However, when you look more closely at how you exercise your power, a second reading suggests that your courts are part of a plan. A method that could be inspired by the shock strategy. Similar to that applied in Pinochet's Chile. It is said that a pinochetista senator gave him the book El Ladrillo, on the liberal model applied by the Chilean dictator, of which Bolsonaro is an admirer.

In the vast field of Brazilian rights, bankers, members of Congress, judges and editors can not decipher the Bolsonian hieroglyph. They ask him to act with moderation, to reconcile with Maia, the head of parliament, to facilitate the approval to the lower house of the pension reform prepared by the Minister of Economy, also Paulo Guedes pinochetist. Bolsonaro listens to the advice, claims to have reasons and promises a truce with the legislature. "I send you a hug (to Maia)," he said yesterday.

But until now, his promises to behave with more talent have usually fallen in the ear of a deaf man. He faced the Venezuelan crisis: after being criticized last month for his hawkish stance, he ruled out the military invasion. But he was decried last week at the White House leaving open the possibility that Brazil will take part in a war adventure.

The same goes for his defense of the most extremist ministers such as Education, the Colombian professor and supporter of Alvaro Uribe, Ricardo Vélez Rodriguez. The request for resignation of the leader goes from the party of workers and teachers' unions to the most powerful media. This broad spectrum of repudiation is due to the fact that the minister has proposed to create schools run by police or that students recite, and be filmed, the slogan "Brazil foremost, God foremost". The resignation request was worsened yesterday after the grievor demonstrated incompetence at a parliamentary hearing. During his presentation, Vélez Rodríguez cited the example of Colombian drug trafficker Pablo Escobar in order to prevent young Brazilians from taking drugs. Indifferent to resignation requests, Bolsonaro has ratified Vélez Rodriguez.