“ I am not going to walk around with my tail between my legs” Bolsonaro
Jair Bolsonaro, is a low profile congressman for decades, former soldier and Army captain surprisingly won the 2018 Brazilian election, as the rise and rule of his nationalist, pro-business chauvinist, environmentally sceptical administration.
The divisive presidential campaign saw fake news and misinformation shared with Bolsonaro’s tens of millions of social media followers. Bolsonaro promised simple solutions to Brazil’s rising violent crime, falling living standards and widespread corruption. Famous for his racist, homophobic and sexist beliefs and his disregard for the so-called “Trump of Tropics” has established a reputation based on his polemical sensationalist statements.
Richard Lapper, former Financial Times Latin American editor muses if Bolsonaro qualifies as a fascist. As a congressman, he once advocated for Brazilians to raise their right arms during the national anthem. Lapper highlights the lacking of administrative order or political project.
Bolsonaro would drag Brazil back to its anti-democratic past, yet he just lacks the organisational competence to do so.
Lapper maps Bolsonaro government’s shambles including the spike in Amazonian deforestation, ham-fisted treatment of China ( Brazil’s largest trading partner) amid Covid-19 pandemic.
The president’s initial response to resting “ I am not going to walk around with my tail between my legs”.
Brazil’s political class attributed to Bolsonaro’s rise, with an understanding born from years of observing Brasilia’s power plays.
In 2018, a combination of economic mismanagement, political cronyism and straight-out corruption discredited Brazil’s established parties, especially left-leaning Workers’ party and made way for someone to sweep in Trump-like to deal with the dross.
Bolsonaro’s political isolation caused by his bizzare views and lack of a fixed party affiliation and as an outsider candidate ready and waiting.
The book explains not Bolsonaro the man, but Bolsonaro the phenomenon, including the president’s savvy use of social media managed by his sons and his reputation for authenticity, fears and frustration that lie beneath Brazil.
The agribusiness lobby set on putting Brazil to the plough, the neo-Pentecostal churches bent on protecting family values, the gun-toting militias committed to cleaning up the street and controlling drug trade.
Lapper also meets Crisnel Ramalho, a former logger turned gold digger living in a backwater Amazonian town, and in his view the environment is a joke on the Indigenous. Each group for its own reasons recognises Bolsonaro as a man who sympathises with their concerns and shares their prejudices.
Brazil is at odds with the progressive rainbow nation pushed on the world since the return of democracy in 1985.
Beef, Bible and Bullets; Brazil in the Age of Bolsonaro by Richard Lapper, Manchester University Press £20/$29.95, 296 pages.