Opinion – Renata Mendonça: New year, new election: the countdown has begun

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​The last week of December always brings reflections. It’s as if these last few days carry the weight of everything we’ve done in the last year and everything we want to do in the next. But January 1, 2022 brings hope. And it’s just not more anticipated than January 1, 2023.

These have been difficult years that we’ve lived through. The last two, aggravated by the pandemic that devastates the world and that mourned Brazil with more than 600 thousand deaths. And if, in October 2018, many of us (myself included) wept over the result of that election for fear of the consequences of putting an inconsequential one in power, today we know that even the worst expectations could be exceeded. The difference is that now at least we know that the moment is closer to scream with the certainty of relief: tomorrow will be another day.

I didn’t experience the military dictatorship, the darkest times in our history, but every time I hear Chico Buarque’s song, it seems to pulse in my veins, its symbology is so strong. And with everything we’ve experienced since that January 1st, 2019, this song took on a new meaning. For the avoidance of doubt:

Despite you (Bolsonaro), tomorrow will be another day. I ask you where will you hide from the huge euphoria?

The president has a year to plan this. By the way, let him enjoy these last 365 days in which he will still be called “president”. Not long from now, it will seem like a daydream when someone says, “When Bolsonaro was president…”. Because even today it is still difficult to explain what led millions of Brazilians to vote for such an abominable being to command the country.

Jair Bolsonaro never hid who he really was. Racist, misogynist, homophobic. Anti-corruption symbol? You have to be very naive or unaware of the trajectory of the Bolsonaro family to believe that.

There were those who voted 17 out of conviction in the prejudices that that candidate preached. Racists, misogynists, homophobics forged in the figure of “family defenders” wanted to put in power someone who would reproduce in high tones the morals and good customs they preach (while betraying or attacking their wives, even).

And there were those who revealed all the absurdities that Bolsonaro said for believing that Paulo Guedes would save the economy. Not saved. And now the absurdities said by the president-elect are even translated into English, Italian, German, Spanish and all the languages ​​that allow the world to understand our shame. Even the UN Assembly has been the stage for this man’s blunders. The Brazilian Trump, as he is often called abroad.

A worse Trump, because not even the original was able to do everything to prevent the Covid-19 vaccine from reaching Americans. In spite of you, Bolsonaro, the vaccines have arrived. And that’s the only reason we’re surviving to, in October 2022, put an end to this martyrdom.

In the meantime, we’ve seen the Amazon burn, we’ve seen a protest outside a hospital where a ten-year-old girl would have an abortion after being raped by a family member (an incredibly protest against ALS), we’ve seen the Ministry of Health downplay the death of As children, we saw a president who spent 27 years in the Chamber of Deputies and had several mandates questioning the legitimacy of electronic voting machines – the same ones that repeatedly reelected him – and asking for a paper vote.

It’s been three long years, and what’s to come will be too. With the difference that this 2022 renews our hope. Just wake me up when September is over. Because in October we will finally be able to say: tomorrow will be another day. Let the countdown begin!

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