The PL (Liberal Party) adopted a defense strategy based on criticism of the Rouanet Law to minimize the controversy involving Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) and the request for money from former banker Daniel Vorcaro, owner of Banco Master. The party’s central argument is that financing the film about Jair Bolsonaro, titled Dark Horsewould have been done exclusively with private resources, without any connection with the aforementioned culture incentive law.
According to findings by Pedro Venceslau, in the CNN 360°since the first video he recorded on the subject, repeating the expression “private money” even at a press conference. The strategy, however, is assessed as having limited scope.
Rouanet Law as a “bad word” in the Bolsonaro speech
The Rouanet Law, which in practice is a tax incentive mechanism through which companies invest in Brazilian culture, became the target of systematic criticism during the 2018 presidential campaign. Pedro Venceslau highlighted that, in that period, Bolsonarism transformed the law into a negative symbol, placing it in the same package of expressions as “gender ideology”.
“The Rouanet Law is a bad word in the Bolsonarist ecosystem,” said the analyst, adding that it is, in reality, “nothing more than a law to encourage culture, which is not widely applied today.”
Pedro Venceslau also highlighted that there are other cultural promotion tools in addition to the Rouanet Law, including laws to encourage cinema in state governments, such as São Paulo, which is “a traditional mechanism of Brazilian culture”.
The PL’s resumption of this discourse, therefore, dialogues mainly with the loyal base of Bolsonarism, without reaching the broader public which, although anti-PT, is not necessarily Bolsonarist.
Debate revolves around the price of the film
On the opposite side, the PT and allies focused their criticism on . Pedro Venceslau reported that Fernando Haddad drew the public’s attention to the price of the film at an event at Casa de Portugal, in the capital. Other PT names, such as Gleise Hoffmann, followed the same line, comparing the value with the budget of other Brazilian productions, such as I’m Still Here.
The analyst noted that the amount announced as sponsorship requested by Flávio Bolsonaro “is very high for the standards of Brazilian cinema, even for international cinema”. Given this, the debate ended up focusing on both cinematographic and audiovisual issues, transforming the controversy into a dispute over narratives between the two political camps.
