Brazil: Jair Bolsonaro’s hysteria grows | Opinion

From Rio de Janeiro

Faced with a dramatic social situation, smoldering hunger while inflation and unemployment increase, faced with nearly 600,000 deaths due to the pandemic, the accelerated collapse of its image and the absolute failure of its government, the extreme right Jair Bolsonaro (Photo) has chosen to increase its attacks on the judiciary, with extreme verbal attacks on two of the members of the Federal Supreme Court.

By threatening directly Luis Roberto Barroso, that in addition to being a member of the Supreme Court, he presides over the Superior Electoral Tribunal, Alexandre de Moraes, the extreme right has further increased the tension.

In addition to being a “liar” and a “manipulator”, Bolsonaro called Judge Barroso “that son of a bitch”.

There is no precedent in Republican history for such an outburst of uncontrolled fury or such an offense against a member of Brazil’s highest court.

All of this, added to threats not to hold elections scheduled for next year, has opened a unprecedented crisis since the Brazilian re-democratization of 1985, after 21 years of military dictatorship.

Result: a strong reaction from the highest court, which opened a formal complaint against the president. The Superior Electoral Court also sent the Supreme Court a request to investigate Bolsonaro’s persistent lies about the voting system adopted since 1996.

The president chose to deepen the crisis, threatening to respond “outside the four lines of the Constitution”, that is to say a coup that would shut down the courts and Congress itself.

The only concrete thing he succeeded in removing the president of the highest court of justice, Luiz Fux, of its usual sweetness.

The magistrate’s forceful reaction included the suspension of a meeting between the three most senior heads of power, that is to say the president of the Congress, Rodrigo Pacheco, Bolsonaro and Fux himself. The objective of the meeting would be to establish a dialogue aiming to “appease the spirits”.

When announcing the measure, the president of the Supreme Court justified the suspension by saying that Bolsonaro does not comply with what he says and, therefore, any dialogue with whom the word is worth nothing would be useless.

The ultra-right-hander insinuates on several occasions that he has the support of the barracks, always referring to “my army”.

Concretely, we know that he has the full support of his Minister of Defense, the very reactionary retired general. Walter Braga Netto, as well as all the soldiers dispersed in his government. We also know that within the high command of the Armed Forces, made up of senior commanders in activity, there is palpable unease with regard to the Supreme Court of Justice, considered to be an exaggerated interference in the executive power.

In any case, that does not mean that Bolsonaro has the support to challenge the Constitution and carry out the much-heralded coup. The members of the high command of the army declare, while asking the secrecy of their interlocutors, that there is no possibility of constitutional rupture.

With a little more than a year of the legislative elections of October 2022, it is true that Bolsonaro will maintain a maximum of tension in an already very troubled political landscape.

To the loss of popular support is now added a tough manifesto from some of the most powerful Brazilian businessmen, who issued a heavily criticized statement, also signed by academics, intellectuals and religious leaders.

But none of this seems enough for Bolsonaro to change course and attitude.

On the contrary, it continues to encourage the core of the most fanatic followers, who constitute, according to various polls, between 15 and 20% of the electorate.

It is an insufficient plot to keep him in the chair. But given the fact that among them is a good part of the police – both the Civilians, investigating, and the Military, maintaining public order -, as well as low-ranking soldiers and the thousands of “militiamen”. As they are called in Brazil to the hired killers, heavily armed thanks to the laws promoted by Bolsonaro, the reasons for concern are endless.

It goes without saying that, defeated, the ultra-right-hander will imitate his idol and guide Donald trump. He will denounce a non-existent fraud and will try to stay in power, sheltered from the tumults of the street.

The great danger is that he realizes here what Trump could not in his country.