Fernando Alcoforado*
This article aims to present how to strengthen Brazilian democracy in the face of the threat of Bolsonarist neo-fascism. Lula’s victory in the last presidential elections prevented the end of Brazilian democracy that would occur with the dictatorship that would be imposed on the Brazilian people if the neo-fascist candidate Jair Bolsonaro were re-elected. It is also important to highlight the extraordinary contribution of the vast majority of members of the STF (Federal Supreme Court) who during the Bolsonaro government acted to stop the coup-plotting actions of the President of the Republic and his allies, notably among their members the ministers Luiz Roberto Barroso, Luiz Edson Fachin and Alexandre de Morais. My applause, above all, to Minister Alexandre de Morais, President of the Superior Electoral Court, who during the electoral process, in the first and second rounds of the elections, acted with the necessary rigor in the defense of electronic ballot boxes to guarantee the fairness of the elections and fought to prevent the outbreak of a Bolsonarist coup d’état that was planned under the pretext that there would be electoral fraud.
Brazilian democrats need to remain alert during the Lula government because Bolsonarist neo-fascism is still present within Brazilian society. Recent events with roadblocks, Bolsonarist demonstrations at the doors of Army barracks fighting for a coup d’état and the attempt to place a bomb at Brasília Airport by Bolsonarists to prevent President Lula from taking office show the need for those responsible to be punished in accordance with the law so that such facts do not happen again. This means saying that the anti-fascist democratic front that defeated Bolsonaro and his allies in the presidential elections needs to be expanded and strengthened in Parliament and Civil Society to stop the Bolsonarist neo-fascists’ attempt to return to power in Brazil. For this to happen, President Lula needs to govern constituting a broad front government of national salvation, as he is doing in the composition of his ministry, not only to solve the country’s gigantic economic and social problems, but also to strengthen democracy.
It is necessary for all democrats to understand that it is not enough to have won the last presidential elections to eradicate the Bolsonarist neo-fascist threat. Neo-fascists are regrouping to try to achieve their goals, which is to convulse Brazil with a view to implanting an extreme right-wing dictatorship in the country. It is absolutely necessary for all Brazilian democrats to understand that the neo-fascist serpent is still alive and will try to return to power, starting with the municipal elections of 2024 and, later, in 2026, for state governments and, above all, for the Presidency of the Republic. One of the conditions to prevent this from happening is that the Lula government does not fail in its search for a solution to Brazil’s economic and social problems. The success of the Lula government in overcoming economic and social problems is the “sine-qua-non” condition to prevent Bolsonarist neo-fascism from returning to power in Brazil.
The future of democracy in Brazil depends on the outcome of the confrontation that will be established between the defenders and opponents of the democratic system in the coming years. The presence of Bolsonarists in the barracks calling for military intervention, the recent episodes committed by radical Bolsonarists with the attempt to invade the Federal Police and set fire to cars and buses and the attempt to explode a bomb at the Juscelino Kubitschek airport in Brasília are manifestations of dissatisfied Bolsonarist neo-fascists with the result of the presidential elections that took Lula to the Presidency of the Republic. These events and those that occurred during the Bolsonaro government, which worked throughout its mandate to destroy the democratic rule of law and implant a neo-fascist dictatorship in Brazil, show the strength of the extreme right in Brazil.
The forces defending the current democratic system are the left-wing, center-left and liberal democratic parties, the left-wing civil society organizations, those who voted for Lula and those who did not vote for Jair Bolsonaro in the last elections, the majority of Parliament and the Power Judiciary. The opposing forces of the democratic system are the extreme right parties, those who voted for Jair Bolsonaro and his allies in the last elections, the Bolsonarist part of Parliament, truck drivers, part of the members of the Armed Forces and federal, state and federal road police. The forces defending the democratic system must fight to obtain a majority in Parliament and in Civil Society to prevent opponents of the democratic system from gaining strength and creating the conditions to return to power in the next presidential elections. In Parliament, they must strengthen programmatic alliances with all the parties that support the Lula government, and in Civil Society they must strengthen social movements.
The confrontation between the defenders and opponents of the democratic system may result in the maintenance of representative democracy in Brazil or its end. Bolsonaro supporters consider that the cause of Brazil’s current ills is related to corruption and the use of the state by communist-inclined parties. Like the fascists of the past, Bolsonar neo-fascists seek to purify Brazilian society from the toxic influences of political parties and leaders, especially those linked to the PT and its left-wing allies, which would be blamed for the situation in which the Brazilian nation lives. The fight against neo-fascism today begins with the ability to recognize it as a threat to the democratic state of law, as taught by the harsh experience of Europe in the period between the two world wars. Bolsonarist neo-fascism is one of the heirs of fascism, which was a far-right political movement that emerged in Italy after World War I, in the 1920s, under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. In addition to the Mussolini regime in Italy, the regimes in Germany under Adolf Hitler and in Spain under Francisco Franco, among others, which were established between the 1st and 2nd World War, in the 1930s, are considered fascist.
The fascism and Nazism implanted, respectively, in Italy and Germany, during the 1920s and 1930s of the 20th century, were based on a strong, totalitarian State, which claimed to embody the spirit of the people, in the exercise of power by a single party whose authority was imposed through violence, repression and political propaganda. Fascists and Nazis came to power in Italy and Germany respectively through legal means. In the same way as Bolsonarist neo-fascism, fascism and Nazism emerged as emotional, irrational claims, founded on manly promises of renewal of national vigor. The Armed Forces and the police did not oppose fascist violence in Mussolini’s Italy or Nazi violence in Hitler’s Germany. The Armed Forces and the police also placed themselves at the service of fascism in Italy and Nazism in Germany. History shows that republican institutions were not always a barrier to fascism.
To avoid the end of the current democratic system in Brazil, it is not enough, therefore, to rely on republican institutions that may undergo changes contrary to the interests of the vast majority of the population through bills and amendments to the Constitution by political forces opposing the democratic system. To prevent this from happening, it is necessary that a broad democratic and anti-fascist front be formed in Parliament and in Civil Society to defend the 1988 Constitution and fight against the acts of the political forces in opposition to the democratic system that are contrary to the interests of the great majority of population and democracy in Brazil. This broad political front must also be used to promote the reconstruction of the Brazilian economy, which is the necessary condition for the Lula government to be successful in the fight in defense of democracy against the Bolsonarist neo-fascist serpent. I take this opportunity to wish all Brazilian democrats my best wishes for a Happy 2023, including their families.
* Fernando Alcoforado, awarded the medal of Engineering Merit of the CONFEA / CREA System, member of the Bahia Academy of Education, of the SBPC- Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science and of IPB- Polytechnic Institute of Bahia, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional Development from the University of Barcelona, university professor and consultant in the areas of strategic planning, business planning, regional planning, urban planning and energy systems, was Advisor to the Vice President of Engineering and Technology at LIGHT S.A. Electric power distribution company from Rio de Janeiro, Strategic Planning Coordinator of CEPED- Bahia Research and Development Center, Undersecretary of Energy of the State of Bahia, Secretary of Planning of Salvador, is the author of the books Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de Barcelona,http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011), Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), Energia no Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2015), As Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2016), A Invenção de um novo Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017), Esquerda x Direita e a sua convergência (Associação Baiana de Imprensa, Salvador, 2018), Como inventar o futuro para mudar o mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2019), A humanidade ameaçada e as estratégias para sua sobrevivência (Editora Dialética, São Paulo, 2021), A escalada da ciência e da tecnologia e sua contribuição ao progresso e à sobrevivência da humanidade(Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2022)and a chapter in the book Flood Handbook (CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, United States, 2022).
Site Title 