On October 29, 2018, a day after elected president of the Republic, attacked the in an interview with TV. “I don’t want to [a Folha] Ahab. But as far as it depends on me there will be no funds from the federal government. “Then he added,” By itself this newspaper is over. “
A month and a half later, until then editor of, was invited to take charge of the Sheet.
He knew that the following years would represent the biggest challenge of his career in the newspaper, which began in 1998. He did not imagine, however, that this work would be so thorny in many ways. A combo was ahead for a coverage of a president given to moving moves, a pandemic that killed more than 700,000 Brazilians and the mental wear arising from these two previous points.
An account of this period is in the book “1,461 days in the trench – The Day to Day under Bolsonaro in the report of the Folha de S.Paulo policy editor”, which will be released this Saturday, the 27th, in São Paulo.
Scolese says that the idea of reconstructing the period from 2019 to 2022 in a book came up during the Bolsonaro government, but he was only able to start organizing the publication from 2023. He points out that it is a “personal testimony, not an institutional view of Sheet“.
“The newsroom had to learn to deal with a government engaged in the destruction of public policies, in the break with part of society, the systematic confrontation, in the furious attacks and the adoption of an unless an anti -vaccin policy,” writes the author in the presentation.
The journalists, he goes on, “plunged into incessant work, joined to collect recognition and flirted with exhaustion. With Bolsonaro and pandemic, mental health was in crash.”
According to Scolese, the months of March and April 2020 were the most difficult of these four years. In this break, Bolsonaro began to attack OEO more vehemently and also raised the tone of criticism of the press. It was also the moment of starting the pandemic and the displacement of journalists to the home office.
As advocated OA Sheet It should cover the federal government independently and rigorously, without, however, surrendering to the belligerent climate, a mark of pockets. “Bolsonaro government coverage left the knife around his neck. He treated us like enemies, and we couldn’t miss anything,” he says.
Such tension, associated with concern with Covid-19, charged a high price. At one point in the book, he lists the outbursts he received from colleagues, who went from “people having been freaking out” to “I have been a permanent migraine for four days.”
After crises of anxiety and anguish, the author himself resorted to therapy sessions. “I left out everything that was not work, which brought a series of side effects.”
The newspaper then took initiatives such as hiring a psychologist who attended journalists for free, and the organization of a course on emotional health.
Realizing these days when mental health was at stake was the most costly experience for him in writing the book. “It was hard to reread the messages that approached this, it moved me again,” says Scolese.
With “1,461 days in the trench”, one of its main objectives is to show how the writing of Sheetespecially when under pressure. “As conspiracy theories came about at the time, I thought it was important to present these behind -the -scenes. The daily life is hard and always with the aim of making a critic and impartial.”
