How the right and far-right polarized Brazilian society
Brazil's far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro won the first round of elections on October 7 and is expected to become the country's next president. For some time, the far-right has been gaining ground in the Brazilian society. However, five years ago, these social groups definitely began to get a tighter grip on the Brazilian citizen. It is necessary to try to understand how the Brazilian far-right won the opportunity to influence the future of Brazil. Before any analysis of the character of the far-right in Brazil, it must be said that this is a latent social group in any society. Its massive popular support is intriguing. At first, it is exotic, gains popular support and then becomes a symbol of order, security, and prosperity in the country. It tries to prove that it is the only one capable of saving the nation, mainly against the “other,” whatever it may be.
The wave of intolerance provoked by hate speech against minorities and leftist parties has consolidated in Brazilian society after the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff. The Workers' Party (PT) government failed to solve the economic problem, but after the impeachment the new government adopted neoliberal economic policies that have slightly improved the economic indexes but made social indices even worse. The military intervention in Rio de Janeiro did not reduce the rate of violence in the city either. In the same way, Brazil is experiencing the worst economic recession ever recorded in its history. There are millions of unemployed and social problems plague all regions of the country. All these problems were highlighted by social media and traditional media into the Brazilian citizen's subconscious mind as if it were only the PT's problem.
The first signs that something had changed in Brazil were during the popular demonstrations in 2013. At first, a local demonstration in the city of São Paulo turned into protests across the country against the PT government. The criticism was in relation to a government that days earlier had the approval rate of almost 55 percent, and an economy with an unemployment rate of 5.4 percent.
Up to the present, there is no consensus on what actually happened that year. From then, there was a veritable wave of conservative movements posting messages and short videos on social media against Brazilian progressives. Despite efforts, Brazilian progressives have not yet been able to use these new forms of communication to inform the population in the same way as conservatives have.
The combination of these two forms of media in Brazil provoked a virtual flood of half-truths, post-truths, and false news to influence the Brazilian population daily against the PT's economic and social policies.
The correlation of forces favorable to this party in society has changed completely. This strategy was a success. In the presidential election on October 7, many conservatives of social media, young and politically right-wing, were elected to the House of Representatives. These new members were elected, above all, by an anti-PT, neoliberal and conservative discourse. The question that must be asked is: who funds this conservative wave of so-called social media activists?
But this rise of the right and the farright wing is insufficient to explain the current polarization of Brazilian society. It is necessary to understand what happened to the Brazilian center-right, especially the parties that supported the 2016 parliamentary coup. As the Brazilian sociologist Emir Sader wrote, the rise of the far-right wing is not only for the conquest of sectors of the right wing but above all, for the weakening of Brazilian social democracy. Since 2015, there has been a political and economic crisis in the country. In recent years, there has been in Brazil a power vacuum felt by the Brazilian population.
It was from this sense of social anomie that Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right politician who is called “Brazilian Donald Trump,” won the support of many segments of the middle class who have maintained their anti-PT behavior, but now demonstrate more radical expressions of open class hatred, racial discrimination and gender. Bolsonaro is the personification of an anti-system character who tries to show that he is a politician with a difference and a fighter against corruption. He is the personification of the mantra “it can be anyone, less the PT in power”.
The latest elections have shown that in the coming years, regardless of who wins the election for president, the debate over which model of social, economic and political organization Brazilians citizens want, will be between conservatives and progressives. The world has changed. The future requires good politics and perseverance for a world with a fairer economic order that is without hatred and political intolerance in Brazil.