By Harold Emert
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Presidency of Jair Bolsonaro is a step towards the return to Monarchy, claims the second-in-line to Brazil’s throne, Prince D. Bertrand Rafael Gonzaga de Orléans e Bragança, 78, (Dom Bertrand).
The Prince is the great-great-grandson of Pedro II, Brazil’s last emperor, whose grandfather King João VI of Portugal (Dom Bertrand’s great-great-great-great grandfather) fled to Brazil with the rest of the Portuguese court in 1807 to escape Napoleon.
One of the principal leaders of the Monarchy Restoration Movement, Dom Bertrand was recently on the streets of São Paulo atop a sound truck to speak in favor of the government and against those Brazilians he calls “the Reds or Communists.”
The Prince also criticized the Supreme Court, exclaiming: “There must be a mechanism to guarantee the impartiality of judges,” but rejected military intervention.
Dom Bertrand believes in Bolsonaro’s promises of “national reconstruction. Afterward, Monarchy will be restored to Brazil.”
As one of the principal members of the Plinio Correa de Oliveira Institute, based in Higienópolis, São Paulo, Bertrand is continuing the battle for the defense of family, tradition and property, for which monarchists and conservatives raged a battle in the 1960s.
In a recent interview with the Estado de São Paulo newspaper, Bertrand said: “We have to be cautious because there are attempts to breed discord between us and the conservative movement. The nation has been ransacked, and we have to reconstruct it.”
Monarchists also back the anti-environment stance of the Bolsonaro administration.
“God created nature for man, who is God’s gardener. The environmentalists believe that man is a great predator.”
They supported the impeachment of ex-President Dilma Rousseff and “applaud” Bolsonaro’s Human Rights, Family and Women’s Minister Damares Alves and her appeals for “traditional” family values with the right of parents to educate their children where they wish.
As for the racial question in Brazil, the heir to the throne says: “All Brazilians have Afro blood in their veins, including my family. This insistence on an Afro movement in Brazil only creates racial problems, something our nation never had before.”
Despite the monarchist’s backing of Bolsonaro, they do not agree with his guru, Virginia resident astrologer and philosopher, Olavo de Carvalho and his usually violent verbal attacks on military men. “I have excellent relations with general officers of three of the armed forces, they have all my sympathy,” emphasizes the Prince.
Monarchists managed to elect a federal deputy: Bertrand’s nephew, Luiz Philippe de Orléans e Bragança (PSL-SP) with 118,000 votes.
He defends parliament as a first step to restoring the monarchy. “A real patriot should support what Bolsonaro is doing: restoring our values,” the federal deputy told the Estado.
Brazil’s monarchy ended in 1889 with the proclamation of a Republic. The nation held a plebiscite in 1993, but those calling for the return to monarchy received only 13.4% of the votes, far less than those for presidential or parliamentary systems of government.
The remnants of monarchy can be seen today especially in Petrópolis and the Prince’s Inn in Paraty, both in Rio de Janeiro state.
Monarchists often meet for luncheons or dinners, with the guest list restricted to those with claims to be part of Brazilian nobility–no press or other visitors are allowed.