The preventive arrest of , on the morning of this Saturday (22), immediately ignited the public groups of and monitored by . In a few hours, thousands of messages with the former president’s name circulated in more than 100,000 groups, in a real-time portrait of how Bolsonarism and its critics reacted to the arrest not because of the coup d’état itself, but because of the suspicion of an escape attempt following the decision of the minister of .
The volume of mentions of messages opposing Bolsonarism is twice as high as those in support.
Among supporters, Moraes is the center of criticism. In a short time, almost 12% of the messages mentioned his name, many of them associating him with “dictatorship”, “persecution” and direct comparisons with and .
Terms such as “ankle bracelet” and “escape” almost always appear reinterpreted as evidence of a plot: the decision would be a “setup” to silence the right-wing leader, and not a reaction to the risk of evasion. Preventive detention is narrated as part of a “police state” script, in which the Supreme Court acts as a political power and not as a constitutional court.
In this field, the call for a vigil at the door of his father’s condominium, scheduled for 7pm this Saturday, took on a life of its own. Before the arrest, the vigil was sold as a gesture of spiritual support, but, after Moraes’ decision, it began to be read as a pretext for the minister to justify the risk of flight.
The predominant narrative in these groups is that the arrest warrant itself would be proof of the system’s fear of Bolsonaro’s mobilization capacity.
On the other side, the reaction is one of relief and celebration. Messages celebrate the arrest as “Brazil’s victory” and treat the escape attempt as confirmation of the former president’s character. There are those who rescue the conviction for a coup d’état to frame the episode as a continuation of an anti-democratic pattern, although the decision this time is formally linked to the ankle bracelet and not to the January 8 process.
One of the main satire characters is the figure of . Her physical absence at her husband’s side is explored with irony: memes suggest that the former first lady “disappeared”, “washed her hands” or was just concerned with her own image. Family life is used as a metaphor for the former president’s political erosion.
In parallel, Alexandre Ramagem’s escape to Miami, despite the judicial prohibition and the subsequent decree of his arrest, enters the flow as proof that Bolsonarism, once cornered, responds by trying to escape —literally— from Justice.
In the end, the episode shows a Bolsonarism still capable of producing noise, but less capable of producing news. The base reacts, becomes indignant, calls out, but revolves around already known narratives: “dictator Moraes”, “communist Brazil”, “political persecution”. Flávio’s call helps to organize this energy, but it does not reach — at least for now — the level of massive mobilization of other moments.
On the contrary, opposition to Bolsonarism also does not inaugurate a new vocabulary. It reinforces Bolsonaro’s image as a coup plotter, potential fugitive and worn-out leader, more of an object of jokes than of fear.
If preventive detention managed to reignite polarization, it also exposed a certain fatigue. The networks become inflamed, but they repeat the same scripts. The dispute around Bolsonaro continues to be one of the central drivers of the Brazilian public debate, and what is new is that, more and more, it looks like a war of narratives fought on familiar ground, between a base that feels persecuted and an opposition that prefers to laugh before breathing a sigh of relief.
.
LINK PRESENT: Did you like this text? Subscribers can access seven free accesses from any link per day. Just click the blue F below.
