By TARSUS GENUS*

The difficulties for the anti-fascist democratic opposition to build a new leading group, which speaks in a united way to the people “disenchanted with everything”, is not determined only by the power ambitions of the parties and fractions of parties in the democratic field, left or not.

The Nazi symbology, the speech on the Constitution and the Law, the political gesture of President Bolsonaro and his supporters – his methodology of “governance” of the Pandemic – if appreciated by the Justice System in Federal Germany, would have already led to his sentence to prison by the Criminal Justice of that country. His offer of Nazi symbols already influences the concrete legal order experienced in Brazil, given the weak reaction of democratic institutions and parties, which has been absorbing the presidential stance in the Government, as youthful irresponsibility or as if they were mere adventures of a leader without political talent or irrelevant acts of a juvenile offender. Now, the STF is starting to react and this opens up a silver lining for the imminent victory of freedom against the barbarism that stalks us.

The difficulties for the anti-fascist democratic opposition to build a new leading group, which speaks in a united way to the people “disenchanted with everything”, is not determined only by the power ambitions of the parties and fractions of parties in the democratic field, left or not. This vocation for seeking political power – of parties and leaders – is inherent to democracy and a basic element of the democratic game and the rotation in power. The difference is that, in this political regime, ambition appears in the light of day, when in closed regimes it is a war – in the underground bureaucracy and pressure groups – tolerated by order, but only kept alive if controlled with fire and iron. by the political police.

I understand that a strong element of this retraction of the left-wing opposition in Brazil – towards organic frenzy – stems largely from a historical misunderstanding regarding the new possibilities of Nazi-fascism in the crisis of the capital system. Possibilities that exist and are threatening the entire Enlightenment tradition of the Western world, established by the French Revolution, with actions articulated today worldwide from the Trump scheme of global power. Another strong element of this retraction is the adoption of a romantic view of the business community, betting that a “conscious democratic sector” survives in it, which can move beyond its immediate interests of survival or its historical interests of accumulation, to unite to the just fight for democracy.

The singular individuals, however, who in the business environment defend democracy against any dictatorship are few, do not lead their social class or significantly their class fragments, nor represent their real interests. Look at business behavior in the pandemic, when they press for the violation of social isolation or when they sell their democratic “culture”, worshiping the President’s pornographic fascism, in exchange for guaranteeing the implementation of anti-labor “reforms”. At some point, businessmen, the democratic right and the center-right, will appear as little angels of democracy on the national scene, when Bolsonaro proves unfeasible to continue the reforms – and it is very good that they do! – and the left will still not have presented itself in a unitary way.

Let me clarify: it is clear that there are individual entrepreneurs who are democrats, just as there are teachers who do not know how to teach, but the set of business classes (and class fractions) do not move – in the political struggle for democracy – fundamentally because they value democratic life, but rather when their concrete accumulation interests are threatened and, at some point, they are harmed by a dictatorship or an authoritarian government.

Let us remember a little of recent history. In 1944, a third of German workers were enslaved on industrial production lines – both German and foreign – not only for military production and war logistics, but also for the manufacture of consumer goods needed by the German population in the course of the conflict. . Hundreds add up to the billionaire and millionaire fortunes of European families, who inherited part of the resources accumulated with the Holocaust and with the robbery of the riches of the occupied countries, during the warlike confrontation.

The conflict redesigned world geopolitics, restructured the Western economy, but kept the business and family groups that supported Hitler, with his succession practically untouched, to rebuild the devastated European economy. Internal resistance, armed, was present in all classes, but those that adhered or reconciled in greater proportion to the occupying enemy were the privileged classes, the conservative sectors of landowners and the extreme right militarism, which opposed General De Gaulle, who abroad epitomized the idea of ​​anti-fascist national sovereignty.

The information above, about the behavior of the wealthy under Nazism, was not published by communist or left-wing newspapers, but by “Forbes” Magazine, based on studies carried out by economists and historians after 1945. business with marginal groups in traditional politics – among them the Bolsonarian fascist extreme right – who presented themselves, as usual, as “non-politicians” repeats the French saga in the 2nd. War: Collaborationism had a high degree of adherence in the sectors of the elite that sold themselves to Hitler (here for Bolsonafro) preserving what was possible to later try to “save” the country: for themselves.

General Charles de Gaulle, criticizing the institutional and political fabric of France, when defending the call for elections in 1962, asked himself – publicly – with a view to unifying a political field for the “post-war” rebuilding: “how can one govern a country that has 246 species of cheese?”. De Gaulle had established himself in London exile – separating himself from the Vichy Government – ​​as the great leader who would oppose General Petain, who had installed a Government to control his own people, facilitating the Nazi occupation of France. He had said in a BBC speech on 18 June 1940: "The flame of French resistance must not and will not go out."

As we don't have 246 species of cheese and resistance in our country has never faded, let's work to have a common public voice in defense of democracy, against fascism and to reduce the brutal effects of the Pandemic. The task is to prepare the country for the next democratic cycle, as only this change can put Bolsonaro in the trash of history. But let us speak and fight together, so as not to appear few, because that alone will guarantee us a fair and productive conversation with those who are only now moving towards the democratic field against fascism, to form a new political majority with us. The Brazilian resistance never faded and since even Bolsonaro practically collaborates, day after day to bury himself, democracy will be able to win. And will win.

*Tarsus in law he was Governor of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Mayor of Porto Alegre, Minister of Justice, Minister of Education and Minister of Institutional Relations in Brazil.