Former US President Donald Trump has officially endorsed Jair Bolsonaro in his re-election bid.
In a framework of economic crisis and general disgust with the Brazilian president’s extremism, rival candidate, former president Lula, leads the polls.
In this context, to what extent can a compliment from Trump serve Bolsonaro?
Trump explained that “Tropical Trump” has done a great job for “the wonderful people of Brazil”. “President Bolsonaro loves Brazil above all else,” Trump wrote. “He IS a wonderful man and he has my full and complete support!”
Personally, love is reciprocal. Bolsonaro even said that he loves Trump, but it is important to think about the centrality of the cult of the leader and the expectation of total obedience from the followers.
This kind of relationship is not infrequent between fascists and would-be fascists. In 1923, Adolf Hitler said, “If a German Mussolini were delivered to Germany, the people would kneel and worship him more than Mussolini did.”
Bolsonaro also agrees to make vulgar and exacerbated machismo a central campaign theme.
For example, just as Trump had done in the 2016 campaign, Bolsonaro recently praised his sexual potency to present his suitability as a candidate.
It makes sense that a president investigated by the courts, who failed to handle the pandemic and who was rejected by the majority of voters and then lied and continues to lie about the election result, supports a colleague who has exactly these characteristics.
Worse still, Trump supported the taking of Parliament on his behalf on January 6, 2021, from the big lie that they had stolen the elections. The purpose of this mobilization was to keep Trump permanently in power despite the election result.
It is at this point and in the repeated threats that, if he loses, Bolsonaro will not recognize the election results, that a fascist danger for Brazil is possible.
The world today is undergoing a profound transformation: an attempt to return populism to fascism.
Over the past century, fascism has evolved, leaders have reshaped its appearance. While explicit fascism faded from power after World War II, its anti-democratic ideas survived, often intertwined with various currents of populism.
Despite his lack of originality, Bolsonaro stands out among contemporary authoritarian leaders for being, like Trump, closer to fascism than other populists.
There are four elements that differentiate fascism from populism. They are fundamental pillars that fascism has and populism does not.
The first is violence and the militarization of politics. This occurred in Spain in the Civil War and also in Fascist Italy and Hitler Germany. All catastrophic examples of political problems being solved through violence.
The second is the lie, the extreme totalitarian lie, which not only distorts reality and creates alternative realities in people’s minds but which tries to create that new reality.
The third is xenophobia, racism, the total demonization of the imagined enemy within. Any problem that exists (real or invented) is explained and resolved through hatred of what is different.
And the fourth is dictatorship. There is no fascism without a dictatorship, although there can be a dictatorship without fascism.
Historically, populists were elected, such as Juan Perón, Getúlio Vargas, Hugo Chávez, Cristina Kirchner or Silvio Berlusconi. All of them, despite their authoritarianism, recognized the legitimacy of the elections, even when they did poorly in them.
Any observer of Brazilian politics can note that for Bolsonaro, a deep admirer of dictatorships and dictators, in practice he lacks the fourth element (the dictatorship) to become a de facto and de jure fascist.
In his speech on Independence Day, and this is not irrelevant, Bolsonaro classified the other side as “evil”.
The president’s words were as follows: “The evil that lasted 14 years in our country, which almost broke our homeland and wants to return to the crime scene. They won’t, the people are on the side of good.”
Would this apocalyptic argument allow you to justify a coup d’état in the name of “good”?
Like Trump, Bolsonaro represents a new type of global autocratic ruler who is legally elected but also embraces elements that populist figures like Perón found too controversial or even toxic: totalitarian lies, racism, and illegal means like coups d’état to destroy democracy from within. from the inside.
Trump could best be considered a “wannabe fascist”. Trump is a populist who aspires to return to a form of fascism. His government was not complete fascism because it did not descend into dictatorship. But it could have been if his attempts to retain power after the 2020 elections had been successful.
This is the danger that Brazilian democracy faces. Bolsonaro is a kind of mini-Trump.
The “Tropical Trump” not only shares Trump’s failed fascist desires but also follows the Trumpist model of destroying democracy from within.
With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
