RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – “Denialism, that doesn’t work.” This is the most critical aspect that international authorities have considered in respect to Brazil these days, according to ex-president Fernando Henrique Cardoso.
“The people currently running Brazil don’t have a right-wing worldview, but rather a backward one, which doesn’t acknowledge science. And having a backward leadership is worse than having a right-wing leadership, which is merely an ideological position,” said FHC after being asked how foreign authorities are evaluating the country’s current situation.
The ex-president, who recently attended the Ibero-American Forum, said Brazil’s response to the novel coronavirus pandemic “was ridiculous” and “serious,” which led to a “certain bafflement [from international authorities] over the speed with which the disease has spread here”.
According to FHC, inequality was prevalent in Brazil even when faced with Covid-19, “which reached the country by plane, but now reaches the poorest layers. He said the scenario is distressing, particularly surrounding the prospects of post-pandemic rebound.
“The greatest risk will be at the end of the pandemic, with the tragic reality of unemployment, closing of companies, and public debt rising. This government had a liberal power project, even on the economic front, and it crashed head-on with reality,” he said.
Risk of institutional breakdown
The ex-president, who served from 1995 to 2003, assessed that there is always the risk of an institutional crisis in Brazil, but that “today the risk is great”.
He compared the Military Dictatorship period, which lasted twenty years and was marked by the closing of Congress, the curtailment of civil rights, repression, and the absence of press freedom.
“In 1964 there was a power struggle out there, between the United States and Russia. Not now. There is a pandemic and there was a cabinet meeting in which the pandemic was not discussed, nor was unemployment. Those are the real problems,” he said.
According to FHC, the presence of military Ministers in the government, and consequently, the “militarization of the decision-making process” in the country, signals the government’s fragility.
“When governments are fragile, they appeal to what they have,” he said, adding that he does not believe that the generals currently in Jair Bolsonaro’s government “are there for a purpose, but that does not mean it can’t turn into something”.
“Do you think the military leading the coup in 1964 wanted to do what was done later? A repressive system, without freedom of the press and with torture? They didn’t want that, that’s what went on.”
However, the ex-president is cautious when addressing impeachment. “I call it historical patience. I didn’t vote for him, but the majority did. So it’s better to stick to the rules, but there comes a time when you can’t. And that depends more on him than on us”, he assessed.
He signaled that “we don’t live in a dictatorship yet” but suggests that those who are not in government “have an obligation to look and to say what is wrong”.
Source: Exame