Bolsonaro, supported by his military ministers, generates a political crisis

The government of Jair Bolsonaro today triggered a new political crisis. The Minister of Defense, General Walter Braga Netto, addressed a message to the President of the Chamber of Deputies Arthur Lira. In that message, he asserted that the presidential elections will be canceled in October 2022, if by then the printed vote is not implemented.. According to the newspaper State of São Paulo, a leading journalistic media, the minister made this request in the presence of the heads of the three arms: army, navy and aeronautics.

The Brazilian voting system being electronic ballot, the operation would involve a turnaround difficult to implement. As for the reason given by Bolsonaro himself and his army ministers, it is that electronic voting encourages “fraud”. However, the procedure has been in force since 1998, with the re-election of former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso for his second term. Since then, there have been 5 presidential elections, including that of Bolsonaro himself in 2018, without there being any questioning about possible adulterations.

The deputy Lira received the communication from Braga Netto on July 8th. On the same day, the Brazilian president made statements to the same effect. He said publicly: “Either we have fair elections in Brazil (by printed vote) or we will not have an election.”

The sources of the Brazilian newspaper State They told the media that Lira, the head of the deputies, felt “a lot of concern” and considered that the situation created “is very serious”. He even said he immediately called the head of state and had a long conversation with him. In this dialogue, Lira affirmed that the president could count on him for everything, but “not for an institutional rupture”.

This is not the first time that the government has publicly expressed the possibility of fraud with the “electronic ballot box”. May 6, Bolsonaro said on social media: “We will have a printed vote in 2022 and a full stop. If there is no printed vote, then it is a sign that there will be no elections ”. But at that time, there was still no information on “military support” for the post of president.

The bill to change the voting system has already been submitted to Congress by the government and is currently in a special committee of the lower house. It is expected that, if the plan to return to printed voting advances, it will be rejected by parliamentarians.

In the political media, there was an immediate reaction, from both center-left and center-right parties. Deputies from all political backgrounds demanded that the Minister of Defense be immediately summoned to “clarify” his positions and those of the Armed Forces.

A Supreme Court judge, quoted by the newspaper Estado, told the media: “The military are trying to threaten, but deep down nobody is afraid of them. The deputy Lira relayed to them a harsh communication saying that he will be able to accompany the president in the political process of his re-election, but that he will never lend himself to rupture ”. Other members of the court said the threat is nothing more than a threat “to prevent the military from being investigated for suspected irregularities within the health ministry.” Several of them appear, with their names, on the list of possible participants in a Overbilling for Covid-19 vaccines.

* Author from Brazil 7 days. From São Paulo, Brazil.