Now Lula already knows that, despite all his efforts to reunite the country and make us forget the institutional collapse that the far-right Bolsonaro wanted to bring about, the coup continues to rage underground, as shown by the impressive event in Brasilia on its 2017 anniversary of the failed attack that shook democracy.
Lula was right, as my colleague Naiara from Brasilia explained, not in any way…
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Now Lula already knows that, despite all his efforts to reunite the country and make us forget the institutional collapse that the far-right Bolsonaro wanted to bring about, the coup continues to rage underground, as shown by the impressive event in Brasilia on its 2017 anniversary of the failed attack that shook democracy.
Lula was right, as my colleague Naiara from Brasilia explained, when he did not let the anniversary of the fateful January 8 last year, when more than 1,000 vandals destroyed the three seats of power: Congress, the Supreme Court and the Presidential Palace, pass in vain. And he did well to invite the 500 most eminent personalities from the various levels of the state, including the military, to the meeting. It was a risky bet but politically valuable. It forced those most responsible for the country's institutions, including the top military leaders, to speak out and condemn the acts of vandalism that were frightening the country.
The condemnation of the coup attempts by the leaders of the three powers was strong in all speeches and represented a hymn to democracy, described as “unbreakable” in the event's motto. And Lula's tough speech in favor of institutional legality and the defense of democracy was both sibylline and implicit in revelation. Without mentioning his name once, he made it clear that his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, must be tried and imprisoned. Forgiveness, Lula explained, “would sound like impunity and impunity like safe passage for new terrorist attacks.”
Lula openly said that because of the former coup leader's comments, “political opponents and established authorities could be shot and hanged in public squares.” For this reason, he called for “the need to punish him rigorously in order to prevent new coup attempts.”
The armed forces' three highest authorities, initially hesitant to attend the event, attended in silence and even applauded Lula's tough speech. The official government discourse is that only isolated soldiers took part in the failed military coup, some of whom are already on trial, while the military as such was not involved, which is partly true.
For Lula, if he did not know it, the most significant thing about this impressive act of reparation for the attack on democracy was confirmation that, despite the efforts he made in his first year in power to reunify the country, he had forgotten the danger that he led democracy, Brazil remains Solomonically divided in two. And not just at the population level, but, perhaps even more seriously: right in the middle of politics.
The worst thing about the Brasilia law is that 15 of the country's 27 governors, despite personally and officially inviting all active political and judicial forces, slammed the door and did not show up. And what's worse, missing from them were those of the country's three main states that have always determined the outcome of the polls: São Paulo, with 40 million inhabitants; that of Rio de Janeiro with 16 million and that of Minas Gerais with 21 million. Together they decide on every election. The three important governors are Bolsonaro supporters. And as if that were not enough, the big absentee was Arthur Lira, the conservative president of the Congress and with him most of the leadership of this institution. And as a dessert, many conservative figures in Congress decided not to attend the session, to whose parties Lula gave several important ministries.
This year the local elections will take place, which are of great importance to measure the pulse of the parties' strength. In the previous elections, Lula's party, the PT and the left in general were openly punished and the right-wing and conservative parties won significantly. They were the prelude to the right's victory in the presidential elections. What will happen this year? This will be a fundamental test for a possible re-election of Lula or someone he sponsored.
This has convinced the government that, rather than focusing on a gigantic foreign policy effort, Lula will tour Brazil from city to city this year to reverse the defeat in local elections. These elections, the first after the far right's defeat in the presidential election, will reveal the mood of Brazilians after the first year of the stalwart Lula's government.
All of these movements, some in the public eye, others underground, will show how divided the country remains and how dangerous a return to the extreme right is. As former Prime Minister Lewandowski, a man of Lula's full trust and destined to be the new justice minister, aptly warned: “The scarecrow of authoritarianism continues to astonish the country as the agents of chaos and discord remain active, albeit temporarily minimized.” Waiting for the most opportune moment to deliver new blows.”
And Lula knows very well that Bolsonaroism has not died, that his predecessor continues to have strength in the institutions and in the parties, as the important absences at the Brasilia event sought to highlight, and that, in the best case scenario, if Bolsonaro is If he ends up cornered by the justice system, he already has possible successors and weight in reserve.
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