Friday the 13th ended in Brasilia with recently sworn President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, 77, personally thanking the dozens of cleaners at the Planalto Palace for leaving him as spotless as he was before an outraged Bolsonarista Mass him will take it on Sunday in the storm. The scene, turned into an emotional video for social networks by its official photographer, could be titled Lula with the people. That was the spirit. His nemesis Jair Messias Bolsonaro, 67, ended the day feeling justice on his back, suspected of sponsoring the worst assault on Brazil’s democracy since the dictatorship.
Meanwhile, Brazil’s Supreme Court has decided to investigate whether the far right, which lost its immunity on January 1, instigated the violent invasion. The start of Lula’s third term in office could hardly have been more turbulent. The situation is extremely delicate because the attempted coup had the complicity of the security forces. Lula enters the presidency weakly, with an undeniable but meager victory and at the helm of a multicolored government. But what happened may also give the left an opportunity to split Bolsonarismo while the moderates isolate the most radical.
Esther Solano, PhD in social sciences from the Federal University of São Paulo, explains that the attack on those in power had various effects that favored President Lula politically. With his call for institutional unity, “he won the support of the political and legal forces and the moderate Bolsonaro,” he says. “In the process of debugging responsibilities, several uncomfortable characters have fallen that they otherwise would have had to live with,” he adds. A climate of public opinion has set in that calls for thorough investigation.
Bolsonaro has been brought under investigation by Brazil’s top court and federal police over a video he posted to Facebook on Tuesday, two days after the attack and deleted within hours. For the time being, he will not be summoned to testify. Recovered from the recent health crisis, he continues with his wife in Florida (USA) and lives in the mansion of a former Brazilian professional wrestler. Late on Friday, he pleaded his innocence through his attorney and again condemned the attack.
The clip that literally put Bolsonaro in the crosshairs of justice is carried out by a follower. He reproduces a conspiracy theory tantamount to the Brazilian version of Trump’s Big Lie: He reiterates that Lula did not win the election but rose to power through the Supreme Court and Supreme Electoral Court. The Supreme Court Justice who signed the investigative order (also the main protagonist of the plot) says in the ruling that “public figures who continue to cowardly conspire against democracy to try to create a state of emergency are liable.” to be pulled”.
The judge in question, Alexander de Moraes, 54 and with the manners of a sheriff, is leading the Supreme Court’s investigation to neutralize the radical Bolsonaro and save democracy. In the elections, he has made this role compatible with that of the highest electoral authority. He is the other great enemy of the former president and his most extreme supporters; They consider him the great dictator, the plague, more powerful and dangerous than Lula. Democrats admire him but feel he sometimes borders on an abuse of power.
Subscribe to EL PAÍS to follow all the news and read without limits.
Subscribe to
While President Lula again dispatched his ministers – who wanted to focus on delivering soon tangible results to alleviate the myriad needs of the Brazilian people – the judges jailed 1,200 Bolsonaristas who staged scenes of unprecedented vandalism against institutions in Brazil or the they cheered while taking selfies in the full chaos. They face accusations such as terrorism – an exotic phenomenon in these countries – or the violent abolition of the democratic state. Convinced that they are good people, they probably couldn’t imagine being locked up in prison even in their worst nightmare.
Handshake with a Bolsonaro governor
Lula shared a priceless image of that intense week: a handshake and half-smile with wealthy São Paulo governor Tarcisio Freitas, 47, the most powerful Bolsonaro supporter in Bolsonaro’s absence. In the military, ultra supporters see him as a solid candidate to succeed him should the leader fall.
In a conspiracy that is, as always, muddled in Brazil, the only political figure arrested for the attack that day was in Florida, nearly 6,000 kilometers from Brasilia. Anderson Torres, the DF’s head of public safety, who turned himself in to police as soon as he landed in the Brazilian capital this Saturday, could be instrumental in untangling the thread. It emerges as a source that could blame the previous president. Lula’s allies drool at the introduction.
Torres, a 47-year-old police officer and former Bolsonaro Attorney General, fired some senior officials and took a family vacation to sunny Orlando. He is credited with the decision to leave the offices of the Presidency, Congress and the Supreme Court unprotected, which also toppled the governor. Torres is also the alleged author of a draft executive order found by police that was considering intervening in the Supreme Electoral Court to reverse the results of the last election.
Sociologist Solano claims that Lula should insist in his “unity” speech that the attack was the work of a radical minority against a majority of people who want peace and stability, that the law be applied so that those responsible, especially those Ringleaders, be punished.” According to this specialist, the president will try to use the circumstances to create a schism in Bolsonarismo, so that the moderates will reject the extremists, who support the 21 military.
In Brazil, it is always important not to lose sight of what is happening in the universe of social networks, a parallel galaxy that is difficult to understand for the analogue Lula. Lies are circulating on platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram that permeate the majority of his compatriots, although he finds this surprising.
Mr Edson, a retiree still working to complete his Navy service pension, is one of many Bolsonaro supporters interviewed who used identical words to describe the attack: “Sunday was outrageous. But… the left started it. If those from headquarters [los manifestantes golpistas] They arrived at the square that the PT [Partido de los Trabajadores] they were already there and destroyed everything,” he explains with conviction. Bolsonaro himself spoke of intruders in his note to defend his innocence. The pensioner also has an explanation for Bolsonaro’s flight to Florida that satisfies him: “He did well to leave because if he stays, they will arrest him. He didn’t steal anything. On the other hand, the members of Congress, the Supreme Court, and the PT government are all a gang of criminals.” Edson is from Bahia, black. His name is probably a homage to O Rei.
Prosecutors requested that Bolsonaro be included in the investigation, considering him “an unleashed figure in the disinformation echo chamber.” Even his most critical recognize the effectiveness of his machine for fabricating lies. Bolsonarismo is rapidly spreading a unified discourse that’s stuck in the ears of millions. Lula’s team’s digital strategy has improved dramatically since the campaign, but it falls far short of its opponent in this fight.
The scenes of the invasion caused horror. Gilvan Viana Xavier – a senior Senate police officer whose team failed to stop the invasion but arrested 38 people – described to his interrogators the viciousness of the nationally clad attackers. They vandalized the furniture, the surveillance cameras, the works of art… of the building that emerged from the pencils of the architect Oscar Niemeyer. According to the newspaper O Globo, they shouted “Military intervention”, “Our flag will never be red” (which rhymes in Portuguese) and “A criminal will never be president”.
In Brazil, it is never convenient to rule out anything, but the Lula government seems more inclined to neutralize Bolsonaro by disqualifying him from running in the next elections. They fear that hypothetical entry into prison would ignite and amplify their own. But if the mood of public opinion changed, that would be a different story. Lula ends the second week of his four-year term this Sunday.
Subscribe to the EL PAÍS America newsletter here and receive all the latest news from the region.