What to expect from Lula’s relationship with the evangelical movement? During the presidential campaign, evangelical leaders praised Bolsonaro and demonized Lula. For example, the “pop pastor” Claudio Duarte, with 7 million followers on Instagram, said that good Christians voted for Bolsonaro.
Along the same lines, Silas Malafaia, one of Bolsonaro’s staunchest allies, said Lula was “an embarrassment”, and Michele Bolsonaro, the liaison between her husband and evangelical leaders, said Lula was “the father of lies”. Thanks to this discursive style, most observers concluded that there was no hope that evangelicals would make peace with Lula and the Workers’ Party.
However, the recent approximations of key evangelical leaders, such as Edir Macedo (who asked his followers to forgive Lula), and the elected government suggest that the abyss between evangelicals and petistas is not unbridgeable. First, it is important to remember that Macedo has allied himself with Lula in the past. His party (then, PRB – today, Republicans) actively participated in the PT government, with Marcelo Crivella, his nephew and political sponsor, as Minister of Fisheries.
Second, the opposition of the evangelical electorate to Lula was never monolithic. Also in May of this year, the Datafolha institute disclosed that, while 39% of evangelicals supported Bolsonaro, 36% supported Lula. At the end of the second round, after intense lobbying by evangelical leaders within churches in support of Bolsonaro, this distance grew and evangelical support for Bolsonaro reached 61%. However, Lula dropped only 4 points and maintained the support of 32% of the evangelical electorate. Bolsonaro opened up a considerable advantage over Lula, but this vertiginous increase in evangelical support close to the elections indicates that this may be ephemeral and about to dissipate.
Another reason, perhaps even more important, for bringing the two groups closer together is the impracticability of maintaining evangelical churches in opposition to the Lula government – or any government. The increasingly competitive Brazilian religious market requires evangelical leaders to dedicate themselves to raising state resources to operate and expand. First, because the limited resources of the members of these churches are not enough to pay their obligations, since approximately two thirds of evangelicals live on less than the minimum wage. Neo-Pentecostal churches in particular (religious sector that expands the most in the country) need to demonstrate the achievement of financial success with the construction of increasingly sumptuous churches and the maintenance of the opulent lifestyle of their pastors, given the centrality of the theology of prosperity in the their cults.
Since they cannot rely only on their faithful, evangelical leaders aim at public coffers. Through their representatives in Congress, evangelical churches compete for access to state resources that can be redistributed among their followers, in order to guarantee competitive advantages in the religious market. After all, one of the key appeals of evangelical churches is the services they provide to the most vulnerable populations – services that are expensive and require a constant flow of resources.
Evangelical churches also seek to influence the content of numerous public policies, including: access to and regulation of mass media, such as TV, radio and social media; exemption from taxes and fees on buildings, vehicles and church activities; and the regulation of educational policies, such as curriculum reforms. Given the need for resources and influence, evangelical leaders have compelling reasons to work with rather than against the government.
Finally, Lula needs evangelical support as much as evangelicals need Lula’s support. By dealing well with evangelical leaders, Lula and the PT can bring considerable benefits to the mandate and to the next presidential elections. After all, even if Bolsonaro has garnered support from a broad and diffuse base, he lacks a political party. Without a party, he is unlikely to be able to build and command a solid opposition to Lula’s government.
Centrão deputies from various parties also need access to government resources, and Lula – a leader with proven popularity and resilience – will remain not only a key player, but someone who could become even more popular if his term goes well. -successful. Brazilian politicians are experts in knowing which way the winds are blowing – and right now, the winds favor Lula. Depending on the occurrence of possible economic and political crises, the polarization between the president-elect and the evangelicals tends to cool down.
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.
