By LUIZ WERNECK VIANNA*
The Brazilian scenario, apparently harmless, barely hides the threats that surround us
Almost two months after the defenestration of tabajara fascism from the State, one can already breathe better and the breath of hope is felt even on the stony road that lies ahead. It is true that the democratic government has acted judiciously, reinforcing and expanding its alliances, in addition to pursuing widely accepted guidelines such as the consolidation of our institutions and, above all, in its option for environmental issues, which today are almost consensual.
However, the scenario, apparently harmless, barely hides the threats that surround us. Crippled as it is, after the failure of the January 8 coup plot, Bolsonarism is still a political movement with strong representation in the legislative power and managed to attract segments of the population tanned by resentment, men and women, most of them middle-aged, who found a meaning for their dark and lonely lives in it and must persist as an electoral force, at least in the short term.
His movement was not expressed in the form of a party, probably because Jair Bolsonaro, formed in the political culture of the AI-5, dominant in the garrets of the barracks in the 1970s, always oriented himself with a view to a military coup, refractory to politics and mass movements , only mobilized for the purposes of agitation and appreciation of their role as leaders. The disastrous result of the attempt on the unfortunate day of January 8, according to his recent statement, seems to have opened his eyes to politics. From there to the broken form there is a step missing.
Fascism as a political ideology is no stranger to us, we know, in the 1930s, the Integralist party, with a strong presence among the military and intellectuals, influential in the creation of the Estado Novo, in 1937, and in the autocratic promulgation of the fascist Constitution that followed it. The unsuccessful coup attempt by the integralists against the government of Getúlio Vargas, in 1938, resulted in the dissolution of integralism as a social movement, but not the fascist Charter of 1937, in force until the democratization of 1945.
As recorded in the best bibliography, the new Charter of 1946, of a liberal nature in its main lines, guaranteed the survival of many of the norms contained in the previous one, in particular those that disciplined the world of work, preserving the corporate formula and the tutelage of unions by the State and legislation on national security, in addition to maintaining the exclusive agrarian status with which the reactionary coalition among the elites was guaranteed. With this construction, in a hooded form, fascism remained in a latent state in the liberal order between 1946 and 1964, until, after the military coup, back in 1969, with the AI-5, it broke with it in a resurgence of fascism in the 1930s. XNUMX.
With the rise of Jair Bolsonaro, a nostalgic offspring of the AI-5 regime, to the presidency, with the approval of important sectors of the economic elites, the direction of his government is obsessively focused on undermining the institutions and foundations of the 1988 Charter. which had provided the liberal-democratic order it had created with a defensive system. All attempts being unsuccessful, he resorted to meticulous preparation of a coup d'état, which, as is well known, lacked sufficient support at the decisive moment in the high military commands.
From the fiasco, he was left with his white armataleone, most of which are still faithful to him, and which must have been useful for an eventual party organization. Defeated by means of conspiracy, Bolsonarist hordes are oriented, reiterating the movement of the extreme right in several countries, towards the path of electoral disputes, when their main objective is defined by the conquest of positions in the so-called civilized right, on the assumption that the reaction to the democratizing policies of the new government affecting their interests, will make their claims available.
Therein lies the danger. Diverse is a regimentation to support a fascist preaching limited to the basements of the resentful ones that is anchored in sectors of the dominant elites. Franz Neumann, in Behemoth, a classic work of political sociology on the rise of Nazism in Germany, and Luchino Visconti, in the cursed gods, also a classic film, are exemplary narratives of the lethal threats resulting from this association between the elites and parties with totalitarian ideologies.
In this sense, the content of some statements published in the mainstream press in favor of wiping out the ex-president's involvement in the anti-democratic attempt of January 8, with the intention of preserving him electorally, and, above all, the the fact that the president of the Central Bank, an exalted son of the Brazilian economic elite, made a profession of faith in the candidacy of Jair Bolsonaro and publicly exposed himself in the usual clothes of his followers.
Hence, it is imperative that the democratic leaders of the parties now responsible for government policies be aware of this process, which is still in its infancy, in order to prevent its spread, considering its consequences at every step, for which they are accredited by the good results achieved so far, because there is still a long way to go before we reach a safe haven.
*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).
The A Terra é Redonda website exists thanks to our readers and supporters.
Help us keep this idea going.
Click here and find how
