By LUIZ WERNECK VIANNA*

The movement of things in the world begins to revolve in orbits more suited to the strengthening of democracy

After five long decades of frustrated effort on the part of reactionary forces, from Margaret Thatcher to Donald Trump, to impose the prescription of neoliberalism on capitalism, it can already be seen, without triumphalism, that the analysis of the good old Jürgen Habermas on the contemporary scenario that do not lose sight of the vigor of the sources that supply the ideals of democracy.

Indeed, in England since the Brexit Signs of malaise in the conduct of its economy are accumulating, cheering up with promising promises the Labor in the next elections, in the United States the victory of Joe Biden with his government maintaining strong positions in the legislature, alongside the defeat of preferred candidates of Donald Trump creates possibilities for this international leader of reactionary currents to become a card out of the deck, putting the political presence of the right in disarray on the world stage.

With these results, the movement of things in the world gives a hobby horse, starting to revolve in orbits more suited to the strengthening of democracy, asserting the role of international institutions, especially the UN. On the other hand, in the East, the women's movement in favor of the acquisition of rights in societies dominated by secular patrimonialism points in the same direction, undoubtedly contradicted by the war in Ukraine, for which an apt way of negotiations is already being sought. to interrupt the continuation of this conflict.

Here, on the periphery of the world, a singular change of direction, operated by the training of the democratic forces allied against the growing risks of fascitization of society that was underway, led to the victory of the Lula-Alkmin candidacy. The process of the elections that gave him victory was closely followed, with clear approval of its results, by world public opinion and by a good part of national governments, including the United States, Germany and France, who recognized elements of affirmation in it. of their positions.

Brazil not only returns to the world, but also returns in unprecedented conditions to play influential roles at a time when alarms are sounding about the risks of the environmental issue due to having the Amazon in its territory, a strategic region for effective action against the climate crisis that threatens the planet, in addition to knowing relevant nuclei in civil society applied in its defense. In this case, it is important to highlight this issue as decisive in the election of Lula-Alkmin, imposing a defeat on the Bolsonaro-Trump axis and its denialist policy on environmental matters, which, inevitably, opens a fruitful path for partnerships between our country and the USA. Never, as now, except during the Second World War, were our relations with North Americans so promising, with whom we have a common enemy – Donald Trump and his anti-democratic henchmen.

The new Brazilian government is still awaiting investiture, but everything that is revealed in the so-called transitional government, led by Geraldo Alkmin, is highly auspicious. The lines of conduct that emerge in the positions on the future government clearly indicate that the country, recently escaped from the world of darkness, will resume its alignment with the civilizing ideals that have always, in some way, been present in our national trajectory.

In fact, this is not and will not be an easy task, but we already have in our hands the thread of the ball that can guide us in this search, which is the path of alliances, as broad as possible, as practiced in the electoral campaign, which was able to re-edit the successful policies of the 1980s. In politics, discoveries are also made and discoveries are made, sometimes surprising, when actors eagerly strive for their ends, which now unequivocally is democracy.

The success of democracy at the ballot box, important as it was, did not hide a strong presence of antagonistic forces that, defeated, rise up in corrected movements in order to try to subvert the order under the pretext that there had been fraud in the electoral process in a farcical mockery of the Donald Trump tactics. The true legacy of Jair Bolsonaro was, as can be seen, leaving in his wake an extreme right oriented to embarrass the paths of democratic restoration, the main objective of the new Lula-Alkmin government, which also faces the challenges of animating a society consciously disorganized by the practices of the Bolsonaro government in his four years in office.

This task is made even more difficult because the parties have underestimated their roots in the popular world that came under the influence of Pentecostals and their clumsy ideology of prosperity, a scenario aggravated by the condemnation by the hierarchy of the Catholic Church of the liberation theology with which their intellectuals tried to communicate with subordinate beings. The disastrous effects of these guidelines produced a land clearing favorable to the dismissal of politics and the dissemination of anti-democratic values ​​in these sectors.

Such desertification of politics, however, has already known remedy, a visit to the people by its politicians and intellectuals, a medication of continued use that demands time in its application. In our disastrous republican experience we have already made use of this recommendation, and it is past time for us to learn the good lessons of our past.

*Luiz Werneck Vianna is a professor at the Department of Social Sciences at PUC-Rio. Author, among other books, of The Passive Revolution: Iberism and Americanism in Brazil (Revan).

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