The former president has sought, in a series of recent interviews and in on Sunday (10), position himself as a defender of democracy. He, however, accumulates a series of and is the target of an investigation investigating an alleged coup attempt to keep him in power after his defeat in the 2022 elections.
In the four years he was president, Bolsonaro often used democracy, positioning himself as a defender of the system whose foundations he was trying to undermine.
After the attack in the United States, the former president doubled down on the strategy. In the recent article published by Sheethe states that the left has difficulty recognizing defeat and says that the right will continue to defend freedom and democracy.
Researcher Marina Slhessarenko Barreto, from the Law and Democracy group at Cebrap (Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning), states that the former president’s statements not only reveal a contradiction, in the face of his own, but also an attempt at repositioning.
“[Ele faz] as well as those who seek to position themselves as bastions of democracy, trying to normalize their positions as if they were in the democratic field. What they want is to subvert the democratic game.”
That’s why she says she considers the publication of the article by Sheet. “He positions himself not as an ineligible former president, but as a viable political candidate for 2026. (…) By granting space, the Sheet legitimizes this type of speech.”
Bolsonaro was convicted by the (Superior Electoral Court) and is banned from contesting elections until 2030 because of lies and attacks on the electoral system throughout 2022. Despite this, he says he will seek the candidacy in 2026.
Political scientist and professor at FGV, Cláudio Gonçalves Couto states that the statements signal Bolsonaro’s intention to mount a discursive defense and put himself back into the public debate, with a view to the next presidential elections.
But, according to the researcher, there is no change in the discourse. The difference is that the former Brazilian president seems more at ease after Trump’s victory.
Couto highlights that, in reality, the conception of democracy expressed by Bolsonaro is “majoritarian and not pluralistic”, as is that of other populist leaders, from Hungary.
“It’s a very common type of positioning among populist leaders around the world. They don’t declare themselves against democracy. On the contrary, they say they are in favor of it. The problem obviously lies in what they conceive of as democracy”, says Couto.
Since the beginning of the 20th century, there have been many attempts to conceptualize democracy, but the former president showed little appreciation for the model even if considered its most minimalist definition. In 1942, Joseph Schumpeter characterized it as the system in which rulers come to power through competitive elections.
Throughout his term, the former president repeatedly questioned the electronics that elected him for more than 30 years, without showing any evidence of irregularity, boosting his supporter base in the event of an eventual defeat. On several occasions, he hinted at a result other than his re-election.
At the time, he said that the fraud would be in the TSE, attacking Luís Roberto Barroso, minister of the court and of the (Supreme Federal Court), with profanity. The were notable in his administration, in an apparent attempt to undermine the system of checks and balances that placed limits on his power.
In an event, for example, Bolsonaro launched bravado against the STF, urged disobedience to court decisions and said that he would only leave the Presidency dead.
He also frequently cited the Armed Forces, insinuating that they could take some extreme measure such as a state of siege, especially amid the Covid pandemic. “My Army does not take to the streets to force people to stay at home,” he said in March 2021.
That year, the former president faced an institutional crisis with the military, from which he demanded more support. The heads of the Army, Navy and Air Force jointly resigned in response to , who occupied the Ministry of Defense.
After the defeat in 2022, Bolsonaro will speak out. When he spoke, he said that the coup demonstrations were the result of indignation and a feeling of injustice in relation to the electoral process.
Anti-democratic protests organized by his supporters spread in front of the barracks. In December, Bolsonaro voters. He did not publicly acknowledge defeat and did not try to demobilize the coup acts. It also didn’t pass the track to .
During that period, Bolsonaro issued drafts that sought legal grounds to reverse the election. One of them, a draft of a decree for the former president to establish a state of defense at the TSE headquarters, in January 2023 at the home of former Justice Minister Anderson Torres.
Former Army commander, General Marco Antônio Freire Gomes told the Federal Police that he was summoned by Bolsonaro to a meeting in December 2022 in which coup proposals were discussed, including one of these minutes.
On January 8, his followers reached the headquarters of the three Powers.
Bolsonaro attempted a coup in his government and that there is no coup via a state of siege. “Now the coup is because there is a draft state defense decree. Coup using the Constitution? Be patient”, in February this year.
Last week, in an interview with the newspaper O Globo, the former president stated that he told ministers to “look for remedies within the Constitution” in order to “look for a way to question the electoral process.”
Bolsonaro’s attacks on democracy
- He tried to undermine the credibility of the electoral process, without showing signs of irregularities, and inflamed supporters who called for a coup
- He consulted with the heads of the Armed Forces about the possibility of coup actions after the electoral defeat in 2022, according to their own testimony
- He made repeated attacks and threats against the STF, in an apparent attempt to undermine the system of checks and balances that limited his power
- He refused to recognize the results of the election, even without signs of irregularities, and to hand over the ticket to his successor
