he sealed his return to the Presidency and accumulated sufficient resources to regain the forefront in the global wave of autocratization. The exploitation of fear and resentment, the promise of quick solutions to existential problems, added to the Democratic party’s dose of errors, explain the electoral victory well.
But there is a preliminary chapter in the story: the institutional failures that allowed him to contest the election. The country has an archaic electoral system, with extraordinary deficits not only in promoting free and fair elections, but in holding electoral delinquency accountable.
And even the modest existing institutions were lenient: the Senate, in two impeachment trials; the Supreme Court, understanding that the former president has immunity from criminal charges. A convicted criminal, leader of the coup attempt participated in the process and won.
Democracies subject politicians not only to the judgment of voters, but to the judgment of the law. When commentators attribute supremacy to the first over the second, as if the election were the first and only measure of democratic regularity, regardless of the judgment of justice, they contribute to conceptual confusion that is neither innocent nor harmless.
Trump’s success will have many types of repercussions on Brazilian politics. One of them is ongoing: the project of electoral resuscitation through amnesty for his ineligibility and non-conviction for the other crimes of which he is accused.
On paper, we have versatile institutions against interference, a model more capable of holding free elections and controlling illicit activities. In institutional practice, this model is subject to collapse if it is not led by courageous and responsible prosecutors and judges.
Autocratization processes, or the gradual transition from democratic to autocratic regime, adopt a strategic relationship over time. No coup rush, no intent, no tank on the street, but step by step, abusing elections, re-elections and illegal practices to erode institutionality. Everything in due time so that the final product, the end of democracy, is greater than the sum of its parts.
Detecting the process and combating the practice of illegal acts depends, above all, on a Justice system not only prepared for the magnitude of the task, but for its urgency. Act before it’s too late.
It prevented Bolsonaro from being investigated and tried for the crimes described in: crime of epidemic, violation of health measures, serious bodily injury, quackery, malfeasance.
Between prescriptions and res judicata, what Aras started was completed.
There is another list on Gonet’s table: crimes of attack against the rule of law, coup d’état, ideological falsehood, embezzlement, criminal organization and corruption. We haven’t seen any complaints yet.
“I’m going to do what I’m convinced is right at the time I’m convinced is right.” Gonet wants to characterize his inertia in light of the virtues of prudence, caution and legal technique. But he is becoming a candidate for the history of cowardice, abuse of power and collaborationism, a position that his predecessor, , won for life.
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