Brazil: Democracy on High Alert
| Author | Mahrukh Doctor |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/20419058231167269 |
| Published date | 01 March 2023 |
| Date | 01 March 2023 |
30 POLITICAL INSIGHT • MARCH 2023
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won Brazil’s
presidential election by the tightest
of margins. The left-winger Lula won
50.9 per cent of the vote, against
incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro’s 49.1 per
cent in a second round run-o held on 30
October 2022. The outgoing far right President
did not concede defeat, insisting that the
elections were fraudulent without providing
any evidence. Bolsonaro’s many supporters set
up camps outside army barracks across Brazil
protesting the election results. They called on
the armed forces to intervene and overturn
the elections. Eventually, Bolsonaro decided
to leave the country and y to Florida on 30
December, two days before the end of his
term. He was well aware that he would lose
his judicial immunity once he was no longer
President. Various electoral and criminal cases
were already piling up against him in Brazil’s
Supreme Electoral Tribunal and the Supreme
Court, respectively.
On 8 January 2023, exactly a week after Lula
was inaugurated as President of Brazil, for the
third time, supporters of Bolsonaro stormed
into the buildings of the legislature, executive
and judiciary around ‘Three Powers Square’
in the capital Brasilia. The rioters, vandals,
insurrectionists, terrorists and golpistas (coup-
mongers), as they were variously labelled,
attacked buildings of the Congress, the
Supreme Court and the ocial palace of the
presidency, the Palácio do Planalto. They left
behind a trail of destruction, damaging works
of art and precious national historical artefacts
housed in the Senate’s museum.
The Bolsonaristas’ insurrection seemed to
mimic the revolt by pro-Trump supporters in
Washington DC on 6 January 2021. But two
key dierences were immediately evident:
rst, most of the security forces appeared to
provide little or no resistance to the mob’s
invasion of government property; and secondly,
notwithstanding sharp political polarisation,
leaders of Congress, the Supreme Court and
State Governors immediately rallied around
President Lula in a strong showing of political
unity and support for democracy. Public
approval for the rioters was very low (even
amongst those who had voted for Bolsonaro).
Only 18 per cent agreed with the actions
of the rioters in Brasilia, according to a poll
commissioned in the immediate aftermath. A
survey of social media posts in the two days
after the attack showed some 90 per cent of
2.2 million posts reviewed rejected the attacks
on government buildings and democratic
institutions (arguably those who supported it
In the wake of the insurrection that followed Jair Bolsonaro’s defeat
in Brazil’s presidential election, Mahrukh Doctor examines the state
of Brazilian democracy and finds both challenges and opportunities.
were cautious and went quiet).
On the one hand, Brazil’s democratic
institutions survived intact and the government
and judiciary responded robustly. On the other
hand, the attacks exposed the vulnerability of
Brazilian democracy amid unreliable support
from the security forces (the armed forces,
intelligence services and military police) and
other non-democratic actors in society.
Two groups received immediate attention
for suspected dereliction of duty: the Military
Police of the Federal District (which is charged
with public security in Brasilia) and the
Presidential Guard Battalion (which guards
the Palácio do Planalto). Over 1,500 arrests
were made on the day, but most people were
released after giving their identity and contact
details. On 14 January, Anderson Torres, the
recently appointed Public Security Secretary
of the Federal District (previously, Bolsonaro’s
Justice Minister) was arrested for his suspected
role in organising the attacks on government
buildings and attempts to provoke a military
intervention. Next, prosecutors and the courts
turned to tracking down the nancial backers
of the riots, including those who arranged the
buses that brought the rioters into the capital.
They could be traced quite easily through their
payments via the Brazilian government created
e-payment system, Pix, which is widely used in
the country.
Lula’s government seemed to quickly
recover stability amid displays of domestic
unity as well as strong international support.
Brazil:
Democracy
on High
Alert
© ABACAPRESS / Alamy Stock Photo
Political Insight March 2023 BU.indd 30Political Insight March 2023 BU.indd 30 27/02/2023 13:5027/02/2023 13:50
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