AND Editorial: A lesson on how to dig your own grave

We hereby publish an unofficial translation of the last Editorial published by A Nova Democracia.

After the first electoral round, the calculations are discouraging for the false left. Only in two capitals did the PT advanced to the second round, not counting Boulos, in São Paulo; of them, despite the dispute being open, they tend to lose in all of them. In city halls in general, the PL, Bolsonaro’s party, had 510 people elected in the first round – twice than PT – and, in the capitals of the Northeast in particular, it also surpassed the PT (PL won in Maceió and is in the second round in Aracaju, João Pessoa and Fortaleza). Here, we are not calculating the hard-line Bolsonarists from other parties (which there are, and a lot of them) nor the bosses of oligarchic power, strongly linked to the “centrão” in Congress. They are not exactly from Bolsonaro’s group, but share all the values of extreme reaction, especially with regard to repression in the struggle for land and the poor, in general, only differing by wanting it through parliamentary means: considering these, the damage is even greater. After all, 98% of the mayors who received the most parliamentary amendments were re-elected in the first round – amendments given by the opportunist government and strongly controlled, above all, by the moderate Bolsonarist, Mr. Arthur Lira.

We have a lesson here, taught by Mr. Luiz Inácio, on how to strengthen the right. Give them exhaustive parliamentary amendments; give them the mechanisms of governing; govern, therefore, as the blackmailer orders, and dissuade any and all possibilities of political crisis by giving in even more. Lira currently has 17 political “godchildren” at the highest level of the Executive; the amendments, directed to the “centrão”, are much worse than Bolsonaro’s “secret budget”… The result is there.

The miscalculation is obvious: the PT thinks it can isolate Bolsonarism from the “centrão” by buying it. It is wrong, since the “centrão” has the same social base as Bolsonarism: the latifundium. Bolsonarism, as a political and social phenomenon, has its roots there, rooted in centuries of predominance of servitude still in force in new forms and the enslavement of black people for 350 years, and is a visceral reaction to the popular struggle, particularly peasant struggle (what enrages Bolsonarism more than the struggle for land movements?); and the “centrão” and its “municipalist” and regional, that is, oligarchic, system of power are the institutional and parliamentary expression of that same social base, from where, for example, the paramilitary hordes of the former UDR [Translator’s note: Agrarian Democratic Union, association of big landlords] emerged (who doesn’t remember?). Therefore, they differ, today, on what is the programmatic solution to the country’s deep crisis – Bolsonarism and the far right are struggling to achieve a military regime, with which the traditional parliamentary right now disagrees. On the other hand they share the same values, including the brutal repression of the struggling masses and the deepening of maximum exploitation; and, even on a tactical level, although each for a specific reason, they also converge on removing functions from the STF, as the PEC [Translator’s note: Constitutional Amendment, in that case, to allow the National Congress to rule over the Supreme Federal Court] recently approved by both forces shows (and which we will talk about later). Doesn’t matter, as can be seen in the movements already on its way for the 2026 elections, the parliamentary right (“centrão”) tends to unify around a Bolsonarian candidate, who does not immediately struggle for institutional rupture, what they call the “moderate Bolsonarism”: and they will use, to elect him, in a coordinated effort, the entire State machine for which they were elected, with the generous contribution of the current government.

By strengthening the traditional parliamentary right and leading to the reinforcement of the extreme right bench, as he has done since his inauguration and the first day of government, Luiz Inácio prepares, in a monumental way and with remarkable competence, the return of Bolsonarism, and its own failure.

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Speaking of the STF, the PEC that removes its functions is an excretion: in the history of bourgeois States, there is no type of supervisory control of the judiciary by the legislature, in this way, unknown. It is a fact that such a project, very unlikely, will see the light of day. If we see it, it will be because we are near to a new constitution, formally or in fact. Because, actually, if such a project is imposed, it will mean, in practice, the collapse of this current political regime, not only in the political-institutional sense, but also in the immediate practical sense.

Still, the fact that such a project was written, presented and voted on in the Constitution and Justice Commission – even with the aim of blackmailing the STF – is a sign of the exhaustion of this political regime. Everyone agrees that there is no longer a consensus among the “powerful” on how to “rule the game” that they themselves control. But the case is worse if we take into account that the project, which aims to give the Congress interference in the judiciary, is not an isolated case: the reactionary Armed Forces have, in fact, been intervening in Congress (see GLO¹, 2017 to pressure parliamentarians to approve the “Labor Reform” and repress the protests that were taking place), in the STF (remember tweet Villas-Bôas’ , giving “good reasons” that made Rosa Weber change her vote and challenge, in practice, Luiz Inácio’s candidacy in 2018). They also intervened in the Executive (whose Bolsonaro government is the maximum expression of this tutelage, in fact more military ministers than after the pro-Yankee civil-military coup of 1964). In turn, Congress usurps the Executive’s budget; the judiciary legislates and, in short, everyone goes beyond each other’s limits. This is what Lenin said: “those at the top can no longer continue governing as before”. The electoral boycott rates, which in these elections reached certainly a third of the electorate – counting abstentions, including those not registered, invalid and blank votes –, combined with the atomized popular uprisings and the disbelief that prevails even among voters, demonstrate that we have, here too, the continuation of Lenin’s sentence: “those below do not accept continuing as before”. It is the revolutionary situation, which develops. To democrats and revolutionaries, the situation requires us to have maximum power in mobilizing the impoverished masses, to unmask any illusion and combat the far right in all terms, especially in the countryside, echoing the armed confrontations between revolution and counter-revolution, between masses in struggle and the Bolsonarist paramilitary hordes, and taking a firm stand for the masses.

1Translator’s note: GLO means Guarantee of Law and Order, a law which allows the government to use the armed forces to repress protests and other alleged threats against the State security.