RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Ian Bremmer, the CEO and founder of the Eurasia Group, the world’s leading political risk research and consulting firm, yesterday stated on Twitter that despite “much competition”, the most ineffective world leader in addressing the coronavirus is now Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
“This weekend, he is attacking governors who have taken lockdown measures. Bolsonaro will severely damage his mandate,” he said.
Bremmer then pointed out that Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador “is also up there”. “He is in complete denial over the coronavirus. Still talking about austerity, no government action,” he said.
Ian Bremmer is a political scientist and founder of the Eurasia Group, a consulting firm specializing in global political risk analysis.
On Friday, March 20th, President Bolsonaro issued Provisional Measure 926, which grants the federal government pre-emptive power over any limitations imposed by states or municipalities on inter-municipal and interstate travel, such as the closure of ports, highways or airports, when these impact essential public services and activity.
This decision affects transport restrictions made by governors such as Wilson Witzel of Rio and João Doria of São Paulo. The governors decreed transport restrictions as a measure to fight the coronavirus.
Criticism
Over the past week, Bolsonaro has repeatedly criticized the actions of governors who have ordered isolation measures in states.
On Saturday, March 21st, in an interview with CNN, the President called Doria a “lunatic” and stated that he and other governors – such as those of Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, Piauí and the Federal District – have taken measures that “extrapolate” and generate a climate of “terror” among the population.
“It is a dose of excessive medicine. And excessive medicine becomes poison,” the President said of the restrictions.
One day before the interview, on Friday, Bolsonaro had already criticized actions such as the closing of trade, adopted in the country’s largest cities and advocated by experts, saying it could hurt the economy and be used to politically undermine him.
São Paulo’s João Doria, who ordered a quarantine throughout the state as of Tuesday, March 24th, said at a press conference that Brazil did not have leadership capable of steering the country during the crisis caused by the covid-19 pandemic.
“I would like to have a president who would lead the country in a crisis like this and not relativize an issue as serious as the coronavirus for Brazilians,” said the governor. Rio’s Witzel described the Planalto’s response to the crisis as “a turtle’s pace”.