“So it is, if it seems so”, a play by Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936), was performed for the first time in 1917. In it, the mysterious lady Ponza, forced by the population of a small town to finally reveal her controversial identity, declares that she is “the one who is believed to be me”. In this way, the Italian playwright maintained that there is no single and accessible truth, but different and irreconcilable perspectives and that the attempt to reach an absolute truth about reality is always fruitless.
The play, which I saw at the Teatro Brasileiro de Comédia, when I was barely a teenager, came to mind, brought about by the discussion of the political consequences of the . This is a problem that affects two judges of our supreme court and, it seems, a reasonable number of right-wing politicians. In other words, it involves the opposition, but is far from the Lula government.
Of the 18 governors accused of dealings with the bank of , 17 belong to right-wing parties; the most involved — Cláudio de Castro (-RJ) and (-DF) — were elected with the support of Bolsonarism. The exception is Bahia, governed for many terms by the PT.
All the parliamentarians whose names were mentioned in the investigations also belong to right-wing parties, starting with the senator (-PI), who tried to carry out a constitutional amendment project that would come to the rescue of the bankrupt bank.
And there are no left-wing politicians who participated in the orgies organized by the former singer of Rede Super, a broadcaster linked to the Lagoinha Church, who became a well-connected banker in Brasília and surrounding areas. In good times, the then owner of Master made large donations to the electoral campaigns of Bolsonaro and deputies from his group. The bank took off like a rocket when the former captain was at Palácio de Planalto and Roberto Campos Neto at the Central Bank.
It is a fact that Guido Mantega, Dilma Rousseff’s minister, acted as a lobbyist to bring Vorcaro closer to President Lula, as well as that Ricardo Lewandovski was a consultant for the bank in the short period between his retirement and his appointment as Minister of Justice. But it is difficult to maintain that the government and opposition are involved to the same extent in the gigantic fraud. There are also two Supreme Court ministers who are under suspicion, not the entire court.
However, this is not how the population seems to see things. According to the Meio/Ideia survey carried out recently, the vast majority of Brazilians have some knowledge of the Master case, but are divided regarding the attribution of responsibilities. A quarter associate the episode with all the Powers of the Republic — the same percentage of those who only connect it with the STF. Eight in ten respondents believe that the scandal has undermined the court’s credibility.
The most recent survey by Genial/Quaest finds that corruption is currently the second concern of Brazilians, right after violence and just above social problems. For a significant portion of the population, the crisis is systemic and distrust in political institutions is widespread.
That’s how it is, if it seems to you.
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