Picture courtesy of WikiCommons
Jair Bolsonaro, the political outsider, gives his supporters a thumbs-up right before he is stabbed on Sept. 6, 2018.
BY CASEY ROEPKE ’21
With upcoming presidential elections in October, Brazilian politics are boiling over. Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right front-runner, was stabbed at an election rally on Sept. 6. His fiercest opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is currently in jail for the infamous “Operation Cash War” corruption scandal, was barred from running as a presidential candidate by the Brazilian Superior Electoral Tribunal. His hand-picked successor, Fernando Haddad, also faces charges of corruption.
A Latinobarómetro poll of public opinion in 2017 discovered that 72 percent of Brazilians had “no confidence at all” in the current political system.
“The current climate is quite tense,” said Cora Fernandez Anderson, a professor of Latin American politics at Mount Holyoke, “but things got worse after the imprisonment of Lula earlier this year since he’s been the candidate with better chances of being elected all along.” Lula, the founding member of the Workers’ Party, was elected to the presidential office in 2003 on a platform of economic reform and ending government corruption. Many have challenged the recent judicial proceedings because there is no strong evidence that he was involved in the scandal. According to the BBC, Lula was sentenced to 12 years in prison for “accepting special favors over a seafront apartment from a construction company involved in a major corruption scheme.” However, he denies all claims and maintains his innocence, saying instead that the charges and trial were intended to prevent him from running for president.
In an article for the Washington Post, Mount Holyoke Politics and International Relations Professor Andrew Reiter said “the [Brazilian] government has been embroiled in corruption scandals since 2014. Not only is Lula in jail, but the Brazilian Congress impeached his successor, Dilma Rousseff, and the current president, Michel Temer, has been indicted.” To Fernandez Anderson, this is clearly a politically-motivated action.
“We are seeing [this] in other Latin American countries,” said Fernandez Anderson. “[Political actors] accuse corruption of former presidents and leaders of opposition parties to remove them from elections and weaken their position.”
Particularly in the case of Lula’s prodigy, Dilma Rousseff — who was impeached for allegedly moving funds between government budgets, which she argued was common practice for presidents even if technically illegal — it is still unclear if her removal from office was solely because of her scandal. “While we still do not know the level of involvement of some of these leaders in corruption scandals,” said Fernandez Anderson, “what is clear is that only opposition and former presidents are being investigated and not those cases related to current governments in power.”
With so many prominent politicians being accused of corruption and scandal, the Brazilian people are uncertain as to who is actually corrupt and what is just political jousting. “Corruption is endemic to the political system,” said Fernandez Anderson. “These investigations are used politically and are sold to the public as a fight against corruption, which is something that resonates with many,” she explained. Yet, since some Brazilians no longer trust the most established parties, many have turned to a nontraditional outsider candidate — Social Liberal Party candidate Bolsonaro.
According to the New York Times, Bolsonaro’s followers see him as the “only candidate who will stand up to endemic political corruption and out-of-control violence.” The BBC reports that many call him the “Brazilian Trump.” There are documented instances of his racist and homophobic comments, such as telling Playboy he would be “incapable of loving a gay son” and being fined for saying Congresswoman Maria do Rosario was “not worth raping; she is very ugly.” However, despite his polarizing and controversial views, he is currently the leading candidate in the election polls — and his support has only been bolstered by his hospitalization.
Bolsonaro was stabbed in the stomach while being “carried on the shoulders of supporters” in Minas Gerais, according to NPR. A video of the attack shows Bolsonaro giving a thumbs-up to the crowd before doubling over and grimacing in pain. In an interview with Reuters, Dr. Luiz Henrique Borsato said that Bolsonaro’s “internal wounds were grave and put [his] life at risk.”
Despite Bolsonaro’s physical injury, his chances in the election have actually improved since the attack. A combination of increased media coverage, public sympathy and oppositional candidates canceling events and negative ads in solidarity with Bolsonaro have led to his boost in the polls, according to the New York Times.
The stabbing was unexpected but not wholly surprising. According to the New York Times, the stabbing “was just the latest instance of the violence that has roiled Brazilian politics.” On March 14, councilwoman of Rio de Janeiro, Marielle Franco, was assassinated and shortly after, shots were fired at a campaign bus da Silva was riding in.
Fernandez Anderson reflects that she does “not recall such a violent electoral campaign as this one, with the attacks Lula suffered and now Bolsonaro.” In an age of heightened political instability and violence in Brazil, the Washington Post urges readers to “expect more turmoil from Brazil’s already chaotic political environment.”
Luciany Capra ’21 said that Brazilians “are either very cynical on the matter, saying that there is no solution and that this is just another example of that, or there are those very hopeful for the return of Lula.”
Fernandez Anderson also has a pessimistic outlook on the future of Brazil’s government. “I do not have a lot of hope in terms of how Brazil can get out of this political crisis, at least in the short term,” she said. “The society is strongly polarized, and a candidate as extreme as Bolsonaro having such strong support is evidence of large opposing views among citizens of what is best for their country.”
The Brazilian general elections are scheduled for Oct. 7.