Editorial

The Week Before the Official Electoral Campaign and Recent Candidates' Moves

In an attempt to rekindle her husband's relationship with evangelical voters, First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro has assumed a more prominent role in the campaign recently. Next to her husband, she spoke at a religious ceremony in Brasília on Sunday, August 8 calling the election a “fight” and “a war of good versus evil.” She ended on an optimistic note: “But I believe that we will win, because Jesus already won on the cross of Calvary.” In her remarks, Michelle echoed the president’s talking points. The campaign hopes, however, that the first lady might help chip away at former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s overwhelming advantage among female voters. A recent Datafolha poll indicates that Bolsonaro’s standing has improved among women, moving from 21% in June to 27% by the end of July. For his part, Lula went from 49% support two months to 46%. In the same way that Lula hopes to at least be competitive with the president among evangelical voters—Bolsonaro is sure to win a majority, but the margins matter—Bolsonaro will try to at least narrow the gap with women. The first lady will clearly be key to that effort.

As candidates maneuver according to their own distinct strategies, there are mandatory steps they all must take as per Brazilian electoral legislation. This week, for example, presidential contenders revealed their net worth. Lula declared R$7.4 million (about US$1.4 million) in assets, less than 2018 when he was arrested on feeble corruption charges that have since been dropped. For his part, Bolsonaro claimed R$2.3 million (about US$452,500) in assets, also down from four years ago when his net worth corrected for inflation was R$2.9 million. Third-place contender, former Ceará governor Ciro Gomes, declared R$3 million (about US$590,000) in assets while Senator Simone Tebet, running for president on the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB) ticket, claimed R$2.3 million (about US$452,000). These considerations will likely factor into a heated campaign in which ethics and public morality will play a major role. Ciro, for example, has tarred both Lula and Bolsonaro as corrupt self-dealers when entrusted with political power. Bolsonaro will probably assert that Lula became rich off of politics and will reinstate the byzantine corruption schemes that his administration supposedly dismantled.

An important opportunity the candidates will have to level these attacks, albeit indirectly, will be on the nation’s main nightly news broadcast Jornal Nacional. Every election, the show’s anchors host presidential contenders individually for a brief but widely watched interview. Candidates usually embrace the chance to speak to a wide, diverse swathe of the Brazilian electorate. Last week, however, Bolsonaro had indicated he would not participate. Critics immediately attacked the president for his unwillingness to face serious questions from reporters. Mocked as a coward, Bolsonaro recently backtracked and said he would sit down for an interview. This debate over the parameters of interviews and debates has been ongoing. Lula also has agreed to very few interviews with major outlets, opting instead to engage with local press and smaller publications across the country. It remains to be seen whether both of the leading candidates will be onstage for the first debate set for August 28.

Highlights

• MANIFESTO IN DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACY AND RULE OF LAW. On August 11, a broad array of public figures met at the Law School of the University of São Paulo (USP) to read a manifesto in defense of democracy and the Brazilian electoral system. Without naming names, the document denounces that Brazil is going through “a moment of immense danger to democratic normality, a risk to the institutions of the Republic and insinuations of contempt for the results of the elections” and criticizes “the unfounded attacks unaccompanied by evidence” that question the result of the elections. The Manifesto has more than 800 thousand signatures and can be accessed here.

• PT TAKEN TO ELECTORAL COURT: President Jair Bolsonaro's Liberal Party (PL) has filed seven lawsuits in the Superior Electoral Court (TSE). They accuse former President Lula and the Workers' Party (PT) of making electoral propaganda before the authorized electoral calendar. In the lawsuit, the President's lawyers claim that the Workers' Party circulated "hate speech" by calling the President "fascist," "genocidal,” and "inhuman,” among other disdainful names. The party requests that Lula pay a fine for his actions and that the court mandates the removal of online event recordings in which the PT committed “electoral infractions.”

• INTERNET REACTIONS. The hashtag “Bolsonaro coward” is now trending on Twitter with netizens denouncing the hypocrisy of the President, who, while campaigning in Acre in 2018, declared “let’s shoot the PT scum” but is now bemoaning “hate speech.”

• VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE ON CIRO'S TICKET. On August 5, pre-candidate Ciro Gomes of the Democratic Labor Party (PDT) announced that Ana Paula Matos, Deputy Mayor of Salvador, Bahia, also from the PDT, will be his running mate in the October presidential elections.UNIÃO BRASIL CANDIDATES. On August 5 at a convention held in São Paulo, União Brasil made official the choice of Soraya Thronicke, a lawyer and senator representing the State of Mato Grosso do Sul, as a candidate for the presidency of the Republic. For the vice-presidential position, the party picked economist Marcos Cintra, a former minister of Bolsonaro's government.

Feature Article

Letter to Brazilians in defense of the Democratic Rule of Law

In August 1977, amidst the celebrations of the sesquicentennial of the foundation of the Law Schools in Brazil, professor Goffredo da Silva Telles Junior, master of all of us, in the free territory of Largo de São Francisco, read the Letter to Brazilians, in which he denounced the illegitimacy of the then military government and the state of exception in which we lived. It also called for the re-establishment of the rule of law and the convening of a National Constituent Assembly.

The seed planted bore fruit. Brazil overcame the military dictatorship. The National Constituent Assembly rescued the legitimacy of our institutions, reestablishing the democratic rule of law with the prevalence of respect for fundamental rights.

We have the powers of the Republic, the Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary, all independent, autonomous and committed to respecting and ensuring compliance with the greater covenant, the Federal Constitution.

Under the mantle of the Federal Constitution of 1988, which is about to complete its 34th anniversary, we went through free and periodic elections, in which the political debate on projects for the country has always been democratic, with the final decision being left to popular sovereignty.

Goffredo's lesson is embodied in our Constitution “All power emanates from the people, who exercise it through their elected representatives or directly, under the terms of this Constitution”.

Our elections with the electronic counting process have served as an example in the world. We had several alternations of power which respected the results of the polls and led to a republican transition of government. Electronic voting machines, as well as the Electoral Justice, proved to be safe and reliable.

Our democracy has grown and matured, but much remains to be done. We live in a country of profound social inequalities, with deficits in essential public services, such as health, education, housing and public safety. We have a long way to go in developing our economic potential in a sustainable way. The State is inefficient in the face of its numerous challenges. Demands for greater respect and equality of conditions in terms of race, gender and sexual orientation are still far from being fully met.

In the coming days, in the midst of these challenges, we will have the beginning of the electoral campaign to renew the mandates of state and federal legislatures and executives. At this moment, we should have the apex of democracy with the dispute between the various political projects aimed at convincing the electorate of the best proposal for the direction of the country in the coming years.

Instead of a civic celebration, we are going through a moment of immense danger to democratic normality, of risk to the institutions of the Republic and of insinuations of contempt for the results of the elections.

Groundless attacks unaccompanied by evidence question the fairness of the electoral process and the democratic rule of law so hard won by Brazilian society. Threats to other powers and sectors of civil society and the incitement to violence and the breakdown of the constitutional order are intolerable.

We have recently witnessed authoritarian rants that have jeopardized secular American democracy. There, attempts to destabilize democracy and the people's confidence in the fairness of the elections were unsuccessful. Here, they won't be either.

Our civic conscience is much greater than the opponents of democracy imagine. We know how to put aside minor differences in favor of something much bigger, the defense of the democratic order.

Imbued with the civic spirit that underpinned the 1977 Letter to Brazilians and gathered in the same free territory of Largo de São Francisco, regardless of the electoral or partisan preference of each one, we call on Brazilians to be alert in the defense of democracy and respect for the election result.

In today's Brazil there is no more room for authoritarian setbacks. Dictatorship and torture belong to the past. The solution to the immense challenges facing Brazilian society necessarily involves respect for the results of the elections.

In civic vigil against attempts at ruptures, we cry out in unison:

Democratic Rule of Law Always!!!!

Click here to sign the Letter

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Feature articles express the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or WBO.