WORLD WORLDWIDE ITALY News Journal Update - (en) Italy, UCADI #167: Democracies in crisis: Brazil (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 After the narrow electoral defeat in the presidential elections, the sovereigns

in Brazil resorted to the strategy of denied victory, contesting the electoral
result by "popular acclaim", re-proposing the assault on Capitol Hill in a
Brazilian sauce . It was a bad copy of the US experience which, if it failed in
the goals it intended to achieve, nevertheless certified the systemic crisis that
increasingly envelops and involves the so-called self-styled liberal democracies:
after the electoral game, the right-wingers try to take possession of the ball
and of the result in the short space of the proclamation of victory shouting
fraud, stolen victory and ignoring the rules of the game.
Even if the coup de main was thwarted, what is happening bears witness to the
crisis of democratic systems and requires a reflection on the systems and
institutional guarantees and forms of government that takes into account the
ever-widening distance between rulers and governed and the fact that small
minorities, but militant, they take it upon themselves to carry out violent
actions in the name of what they consider to be the majorities of the electorate.
For now, the facts show that in the absence of meticulous preparation and over
time, of a gradual action of power, this strategy, although destabilizing, is
destined to fail and that the coup must be carefully prepared and above all
supported by the army: they are proof of this the contemporary crises of Peru and
Brazil,

The Brazilian crisis

On January 1, with the inauguration of Lula da Silva, the transition seemed well
underway despite the absence of the outgoing president at the inauguration
ceremony testifying to the substantial will, despite the formal declarations of
recognition of the result of disregarding the legitimacy of the new government.
In his inaugural speech, Lula had illustrated the points of his program by
proposing national reconciliation and at the same time re-proposing the "change"
consisting in implementing the constitutional precepts starting with the right to
a dignified life, without hunger, with access to work, health and education,
stating that his life's mission would be accomplished when every man and woman in
the country could eat three meals a day. The fact that this right is not
guaranteed to every Brazilian today is the most serious symptom of the
devastation that has been imposed on the country in recent years and that
therefore a representative of the working class is needed called to remedy the
fact that the country has been deprived of health resources, which has been
dismantled Education, Culture, scientific research Technology, destroyed
environmental protection, resources for school canteens, vaccinations, public
safety, forest protection, social assistance. The governance of the economy,
public financing, support for businesses, entrepreneurs and foreign trade have
been disorganised, state companies and public banks have been plundered, and
national assets handed over to speculators.
Instead, your government would have defended the rights and interests of the
population, provided for the strengthening of democracy and the recovery of
national sovereignty by assuming these objectives as the pillars of the
government's program by restarting the Bolsa Família social assistance program
implemented by the Government of Brazil which provides financial aid to families
in poverty. strengthening and renewing it, making it stronger and fairer, serving
the neediest to save 33 million people from hunger and poverty more than 100
million Brazilian men and women, who have borne the brunt of the project of
national destruction that ends today.
Two different worldviews are compared. The one of the left, centered on
solidarity and political and social participation for the democratic definition
of the country's destiny and the other, centered on individualism, the denial of
politics, the destruction of the state in the name of presumed individual
freedoms, on theology of prosperity that preaches inequality and sees in wealth
at all costs the fruit of God's benevolence, assuming as its own dogma the more
material wealth and success on earth, the more chances of salvation in heaven.
Aware of the divisive results of the vote, the Government proposed to dialogue
with the 27 governors of the states (14 of which expressed by parties linked to
Bolzonaro) to define the priorities for the resumption of irresponsibly paralyzed
public works, which number more than 14,000 in the country. The Minha Casa, Minha
Vida Program will be resumed , which aims to help the lower social strata to
acquire their own home and a new Growth Acceleration Program will be
launched(PAC), a major infrastructure program of the federal government of Brazil
aimed at generating jobs at the rate necessary for the country. Lula also
announced his intention to seek financing and cooperation - at national and
international level - for investments, to strengthen and expand the domestic
consumer market, to develop trade, exports, services, agriculture and industry .
Public banks, in particular BNDES, National Bank for Economic and Social
Development, a development bank structured as a federal public company, will be
associated with Brazil's Ministry of Economy with the stated aim of providing
long-term financing for efforts that contribute to the development of the
country, and companies that promote growth and innovation, such as Petrobras, the
Brazilian public company that explores, extracts, refines, transports and sells
oil. New will be given to small and medium-sized enterprises, which are
potentially the greatest generators of jobs and income, to entrepreneurship,
cooperativism and the creative economy.
To achieve these objectives it is necessary to reorganize the structures of the
Executive, so that they once again allow the government to function in a
rational, republican and democratic way. "Saving the role of state institutions,
public banks and state-owned enterprises in the development of the country."
Planning public and private investments towards sustainable economic growth, from
an environmental and social point of view.

Brazil's environmental policy

Reiterating that no other country has the conditions of Brazil to become a great
environmental power, based on the creativity of the bioeconomy and
socio-biodiversity Lula announced the beginning of the energy and ecological
transition towards sustainable agriculture and mining, a stronger family farming
and greener industry with zero deforestation as a goalin the Amazon and zero gas
emissions that fuel the greenhouse effect in the electricity matrix, as well as
encouraging the reuse of degraded pastures. Few Brazil does not need to clear
forests to maintain and expand its strategic agricultural frontier. Prosperity in
the countryside will be encouraged and supported, as will the freedom and
opportunity to create, plant and harvest, but a lawless rural environment will
not be allowed and violence against smallholdings, deforestation and the
environmental degradation, by landowners and multinationals. This is one of the
reasons, not the only one, for the creation of the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples.
"No one knows our forests better or is more capable of defending them than those
who have been here since time immemorial.
"Every demarcated indigenous land is a new environmental protection area. We owe
these Brazilian men and women respect and owe them a historic debt."
We will abolish all injustices committed against native peoples. It is
unacceptable that blacks and mulattoes continue to be the poor and downtrodden
majority of a country built on the sweat and blood of their African ancestors.
("Brazil: President Lula's Inauguration Speech Before the …") Ministry for the
Promotion of Racial Equality will be created to expand quota policy in
universities and public service, as well as resume public policies targeting
people of color in healthcare, education and culture."
It is unacceptable that women receive a lower salary than men, performing the
same function or that they live in a sexist political world, that they are
harassed with impunity on the streets and at work, that they are victims of
violence inside and outside the home. For this reason we are also re-founding the
Ministry of Women to tear down this centuries-old castle of inequalities and
prejudices.
There will be no true justice in a country where only one human being is wronged.
It will be up to the Ministry of Human Rights to ensure and act so that every
citizen has their rights respected, in accessing public and private services, in
protection against prejudice or before public authority. Citizenship is the other
name of democracy.
The Department of Justice and Public Safety will work to harmonize federal powers
and agencies to promote peace where it is most urgently needed, in poor
communities, among vulnerable families, where organized crime, militias and
violence operate, from wherever they come from. The criminal decrees which
widened access to weapons and ammunition and which have caused so much insecurity
and so much damage to Brazilian families will be revoked.
Lula then promised a radical change in health policy, denouncing the choices of
the previous government in the fight against Covid 19 which caused more than
700,000 deaths, recalling that the Unified Health System is probably the most
democratic of the institutions created by the 1988 Constitution but is been the
most damaged by a stupidity called "expenditure ceiling" through a law inserted
in the Constitution which sets specific limits for primary social public
expenditure which will be repealed by reformulating the health budget to
guarantee basic assistance, popular pharmacy, promote access to specialist
medicine. The same will be done with education, investing more in universities,
technical education, the universalization of internet access, the expansion of
kindergartens and full-time public education. This is the investment that will
truly lead to the development of the country.
The eyes of the world were on Brazil in these elections. The world expects Brazil
to once again become a leader in tackling the climate crisis and an example of a
socially and environmentally responsible country, capable of promoting economic
growth with income distribution, fighting hunger and poverty, with a process
democratic.
In concluding his speech Lula. prophetically, he claimed to be aware of the
threats that the democratic model had and will have to face, "of the wave of
authoritarian extremism that spreads hatred and lies through technological means
not subject to transparent controls throughout the country."

The attempted coup of January 8th

Thousands of Bolzonaro supporters broke through the very low police barriers
without essentially finding resistance to invade and vandalize the buildings
symbolizing the three state powers: that of the presidency of the Republic, that
of the Supreme Federal Court and Congress. Yet, everyone knew the existence of a
camp where supporters of the defeated President had been staying for weeks. The
intervention of the army then restored order. Apparently out of sight, Bolzonaro
from Florida has kept a low profile, preferring to let his
collaborators act on him.
The populist scheme of contesting the vote worked less here than in Washington,
with the assault on the Capitol by Donald Trump's ultras and not only because of
the lesser consistency of the man Bolzonaro but also because the ways in which
they unfolding events alienated the support of the United States to the coup
plotters. On the other hand, it is known that coups in South America are not
carried out without US consent, in this case non-existent if only for obvious
reasons, given the relations of the coup president with Trump and the
international populist movement opposed by Biden .
However, what happened affects Brazil's international role both within the BRICS
(an acronym used in international economics to refer to Brazil · Russia · India ·
China · South Africa) and throughout Latin America where Brazil will find it
difficult to exercise that a role that also belongs to it due to its size and
economic weight. To pursue and achieve his goals, Lula needs allies and above all
to maintain US support which was not absolutely obvious before the attempted coup

The editorial staff

http://www.ucadi.org/2023/02/01/democrazie-in-crisi-brasile/
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