Jair Bolsonaro’s Brazil Is a Nightmare That Could Get Worse
If Jair Bolsonaro isn’t stopped, Brazil may go down a far-right path of no return. We need a political project strong enough to defeat him.
Protest against then-presidential candidate Bolsonaro on September 29, 2018 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.Victor Moriyama / Getty
Just a couple of months ago, commentators were complaining that Jair Bolsonaro was not doing much with his presidency. The Brazilian president, recovering from a surgery related to the knife wound he sustained during last year’s campaign, seemed a bit off, even though his overhaul of the government was already underway. Speculations about the incompetence of Bolsonaro’s team, and their inability to see past ideology to push the country forward, were common.
Since April, though, the material basis of these ideological premises has become increasingly obvious. The government has gone full steam ahead on matters the Bolsonaros and their close political nucleus can agree on, which means that everywhere you look, you find social rights and public goods under attack. It was never about incompetence, but about doing away with as much as possible as fast as possible. They just needed some time to get adjusted.
All in for Pension Reform
The Bolsonaro government’s priority project is, of course, pension reform. Reforming the Brazilian pension system, which is currently designed around a solidarity approach, is one of the reasons the capitalist class orchestrated a parliamentary coup against former Workers’ Party (PT) president Dilma Rousseff, elevating her neoliberal vice president Michel Temer in her place. It’s also the reason they later promoted Bolsonaro’s extreme-right candidacy, even though he had no solid economic credentials. His shot at winning depended on taking the PT’s historical leader Lula out of the picture. The judge responsible for that task, Sergio Moro, is now Bolsonaro’s justice minister.
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