AND: Editorial – How opportunism prepares the come back of Bolsonarism
We publish an unofficial translation of the editorial by A Nova Democracia from Brazil.
The pragmatic policy of opportunism is quickly leading the cause of the democratic rights to the precipice.
Surrounded by investigations, which tend to converge to denounce him for an attempted coup on January 8th, Bolsonaro participated in an event together with Alexandre Ramagem, Flávio Bolsonaro, Cláudio Castro and more, in Rio de Janeiro, on the 18th. To that circle of criminals he stated: “Some thought I would give a pass to that guy, but I don’t give a pass to a thief.” He also tried to draw a parallelism between the machination involving Trump and the Juiz de Fora stabbing episode: “Have you noticed that only the conservative and those on the right suffer attacks? Did you see that there was an attempt to kill Trump?” With this, he tries to continue mobilizing his ultra-reactionary social base, as he knows that his situation is critical.
On the one hand, there is a growing risk that the slave catcher will be arrested, since an agreement was in fact reached between the hegemonic right in the High Command and the traditional right and the STF to punish all those, among the coup plotters of November 2022, which rushed into the wild attempts of January 2023. With this, the coupist generals who defend a “slow, gradual and safe” military intervention and provide a truce in the military crisis were shielded from further punishment. This worries Bolsonaro. On the other hand, the delicate scenario of stagnation of approval in public opinion of the government of the false left with the traditional right for not fulfilling its promises and added to the difficulties of its political articulation, give Bolsonaro the perception that there is a favorable situation to resume his plans in 2026. However, the liberal right is working for a “moderate” Bolsonarist candidate, using all the reactionary sentiment leveraged on anti-communism that Bolsonarism distills and diffuse, targeting the PT and the revolutionary popular struggle.
Despite this, it is clear that Bolsonarism, as a mass phenomenon, has become pulverized, but in no way because its political importance in society has diminished: this, to a certain extent, remains relatively as what it was at the beginning of 2023, however, demoralized after the 8th of January due to the offensive of the press monopolies and the STF, it then lost the initiative, but continues to act, albeit with a certain passivity. At the first opportunity that his opponents become demoralized, Bolsonaro will forcefully regain the initiative and as a phenomenon Bolsonarism will fusion quickly. In this sense, the failure of the false left government is the biggest help Bolsonaro can have; the conciliation of classes and the commitment to demobilize the social movement that supports it, which results in frustration for the popular masses, produces a situation that only favors Bolsonarism, and not the other way round.
See, now, the new funding cut that the government will make. Haddad (Translator’s note: Financial Minister) went to the public, pressured by the financial market under heavy bombardment from press monopolies, to announce a cut of R$15 billion, accompanied by further vows of total obedience to the “fiscal framework” (spending ceiling). As it is not possible to seriously change the Ministry of Defense (whose new major investments the government placed as secret, without further explanation) nor the Ministry of Finance commanded by the “agribusiness” latifundium, there is no doubt that this amount, in part, will inevitably be cut off from the social spendings. Once again, we are fooled.
(But Luiz Inácio, even so, is in a “good mood” and has even resorted to the use of “jokes” to break the ice: “Today I heard some sad news, news that has been researched, Haddad, it shows that after the football game, violence against women increases. Unbelievable. If the guy is from Corinthians, that’s fine, like me, but I don’t get nervous when I lose, I deeply regret it”, he said, during a meeting with journalists… No comments necessary.)
The pragmatic policy of opportunism is quickly driving the cause of democratic rights to the precipice. Luiz Inácio is determined to move forward, but it is worth asking: where to? The answer, objectively, is: wherever it is possible to survive politically. In this, the government is condemned to become demoralized, because, in the current stage of the crisis of bureaucratic capitalism in the country in the midst of the general crisis of imperialism and, reflected as decomposition in the apparatus of the old State, only those survive who apply a right-wing program, as the current government is doing. The more it is applied, the more it will be necessary to be applied, and the time will come when the Bolsonarist right will implement a right-wing government program better, obviously. This is already projected for 2026. The PT government is preparing the return of an oxygenated Bolsonarism, when the essential promise in 2022, already long ago, was precisely: to avoid Bolsonarism. What misery!
The masses, therefore, cannot allow themselves to be carried away by pragmatism, but to raise popular protest to the heights to wrest their rights from the current government and other institutions of the old State and, as a bonus, gather strength to resist the attacks of the counter-revolutionary offensive that will be coming.
