President Bolsonaro besieged by attacks following accusations

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The week at the Planalto Palace began with a hangover after deputy Luis Miranda’s (DEM-DF) testimony before the Covid CPI (investigative committee), and closed with the opening of two criminal inquiries – one to investigate anti-democratic rallies and the other to investigate an alleged crime of misconduct in the Covaxin case.

In an interview with Folha newspaper on Tuesday, June 29, Luiz Paulo Dominguetti Pereira, who claims to be a vaccine salesman, said he was asked for a US$1 per dose kickback in exchange for a contract with the Ministry of Health.

He said the Ministry’s then Logistics Director Roberto Ferreira Dias demanded the kickback at a dinner in Brasilia on February 25. Dias was dismissed after the interview.

Planalto advisors consider that president Jair Bolsonaro has reached the most critical time in his government, attacked from all sides, with his self-confessed anti-corruption flag scorched, lacking a strategy to follow and, consequently, lacking a discourse that would place him in a safe position.

Over the past few days, the president has gone from silence -he even shunned his supporters at the Alvorada Palace for two days- to the usual grab bag of verbiage seeking to mobilize his most radical base.

The president’s aides complain that there is no control over Bolsonaro’s defense tactics and, consequently, the government acts haphazardly.

This is what occurred on the night of June 23, when Minister Onyx Lorenzoni led one of the people under investigation by the CPI, special advisor to the Chief of Staff and ex-executive-secretary of Health Elcio Franco, to address the allegations made by Luis Miranda and Luis Ricardo Fernandes Miranda, a Ministry of Health servant and the deputy’s brother.

They brought to light alleged improprieties in the Covaxin vaccine purchase contract. Onyx failed to clarify dubious points of the accusation, such as what Bolsonaro did when he learned of what the two presented.

Rather than expressing the government’s concern in unraveling what the Miranda brothers recounted, the Minister struck back and announced that the Federal Police would investigate them.

A first explanation of what Bolsonaro should have done in light of what the Miranda brothers reported only came the following day, when CPI senators said that the president took the reports to General Eduardo Pazuello, then Minister of Health.

Five days after Onyx’s threats, Bolsonaro sought to shift the responsibility away from himself, adopting a similar discourse to that of ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva at the time of the Mensalão scandal, when the leftist claimed he was unaware of embezzlement in his government.

“He [Luis Miranda] submitted [information about the purchase of the vaccine], I didn’t even know how the Covaxin negotiations were progressing, because there are 22 Ministries,” he said on June 28.

It was only in the afternoon of June 29 that the government decided to suspend its contract with Precisa Medicamentos to purchase 20 million Covaxin doses.

On Friday, July 2, the federal Prosecutor General’s Office (PGR) requested the Federal Supreme Court (STF) to open an investigation into Bolsonaro’s alleged dereliction of duty in the case. Justice Rosa Weber ordered the opening of the inquiry.

Dominguetti gave harsh testimony to the CPI on Thursday, July 1, and confirmed what he had said in the interview with Folha.

That same day, STF Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the inquiry into anti-democratic rallies to be dismissed, only to announce the opening of another investigation into the existence of a digital criminal organization aimed at attacking institutions, bypassing the Prosecutor General’s Office.

The whirlwind of events has hit Bolsonaro at his most sensitive point, social networks. Those around the president have perceived that, understandably, the case of the US$1 kickback has stuck to the government.

According to a study by Modalmais Bank and AP Exata data analysis company, the crisis in the Ministry of Health has undermined confidence in the president to the lowest levels in his mandate.

During the week there were times when only 9% of posts that mentioned Bolsonaro aroused trust, according to the analysis. The study pointed out that this credibility decline was also reflected in right-wing groups, which were surprised by the president’s inaction regarding the corruption allegations.

It was this perception that led to a new onslaught of tired strategies, such as the massive reproduction of narratives favorable to the government during the early hours of the morning, in an attempt to dominate social networks early in the day, the analysis said.

It also led Bolsonaro to break his silence and re-radicalize his discourse. He again raised unfounded suspicions about electronic ballot boxes. Senators who are part of the Covid CPI also became targets of presidential invective.

Allies of the president fear that the attacks will be reflected in circles such as the Senate’s CCJ (Constitution and Justice Committee), which will soon consider Bolsonaro’s nomination for Justice Marco Aurélio’s seat on the STF on July 12, when he retires.

Frequent targets of the president, such as the CPI president Omar Aziz (PSD-AM) and rapporteur Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL), are also members of the CCJ, responsible for examining the nominee and approving or rejecting him.

Bolsonaro’s preferred nominee, Federal Solicitor General (AGU) André Mendonça, is widely disliked in the Senate. He had been working to curry favor, but his boss’ intemperance and the CPI attrition are likely to stand in his way.