Jul 07 2023 | Nº. 74

Editorial

The next major legislative initiative the Lula administration is pushing is a major tax overhaul that would simplify Brazil’s arcane rules. Several presidents over the past three decades have tried to pass similar reforms in recognition of the persistent criticism that overly complicated tax laws hinder economic growth. The challenge, however, is that such an effort designed at the federal level often meets with opposition from state and municipal leaders who fear a loss in revenues if the system changes. Because of its diverse constituency, the tax reform proposal has attracted somewhat surprising supporters and opponents. Arthur Lira, the head of the lower house of Congress who has often been an obstacle to the Lula administration’s plans, has signaled his eagerness to oversee passage of a tax overhaul. His abiding intention has been to begin voting on the measure before the July 17 legislative recess. Debate in Congress began this Thursday.

The Frente Nacional de Prefeitos, a national association of mayors, however, ran television ads this week endorsing the idea of a tax overhaul but suggesting that the reform as currently proposed—which would increase transparency and consolidate myriad taxes into much fewer charges—could mean fewer resources for local governments. Many governors expressed similar concerns, like São Paulo governor Tarcísio de Freitas who said earlier this week he was on board with 95 percent of the reform proposal. To push back against such misgivings, several high-profile economists issued an open letter in support of the tax reform, arguing that the measure will positively impact the country’s productivity and growth. It is not yet clear that the tax overhaul has the requisite support, but there is a very strong coalition backing it.

Members of the Lula government, especially Finance Minister Fernando Haddad, have insisted that the tax overhaul is not a partisan mission but a critical step for the Brazilian state. Nevertheless, politics are an important factor in the deliberations that moved forward this week. If Lula is able to pass the major new fiscal framework and the tax overhaul, both overseen by Haddad, it will underscore Lula’s noted ability to negotiate with Congress. Getting tough, consequential proposals backed by elements of the left, center, and even some on the right through an unfriendly legislature might well be an electoral calling card in 2026 if Lula decides to reverse his stated intent not to pursue another term—or for Haddad, the man seeing tasked with devising and implementing these major efforts.

Highlights

• Dispute for money. The centrão, the sizeable agglomeration of political parties in Congress who lack clear distinguishing features but excel at maintaining power and largely supported former president Jair Bolsonaro, is pressuring the Ministries of Health, Social Development, and Sports to release funds in exchange for votes and political support. Now, to support Lula’s legislative priorities, the centrão is demanding the executive branch release funds for public works in their districts. The distribution of federal funds to individual members of Congress has become a key element for Lula to garner the support he needs to pass his legislative agenda.

• Legislative change. During the Bolsonaro government, the president of Congress, Arthur Lira, managed the dispersal of pork-barrel spending. He distributed the money in the form of parliamentary amendments, without interference from the executive branch, but the Federal Supreme Court (STF) ruled that practice unconstitutional late last year. With the change, the allocation of federal spending was concentrated in the hands of the executive branch, which is why the centrão is pressuring Lula's cabinet ministers. The dispute between Lula and Lira over the distribution of these resources became the central point of dispute between the presidency and the legislature.

• More punishments. After having his political rights revoked by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) until 2030 for abusing his powers for electoral gain, Bolsonaro is now at risk of having to pay fine that could cost millions. Specialists in electoral law say that the Public Prosecutor’s Office may file a lawsuit to demand that the former president reimburse public coffers for the amount that was spent on the July 2022 meeting with foreign diplomats at the presidential palace in which Bolsonaro attacked Brazil’s electoral system. It is also possible that the STF will link Bolsonaro to ongoing criminal cases related to the January 8 insurrection.

• Mercosur meeting. The presidents of Mercosur member countries met this week in the Argentine city of Puerto Iguazú, on the border with Brazil. The summit served to transfer the rotating presidency of the trade bloc to Brazil. Lula gave a speech criticizing the position of European countries toward their Latin American counterparts, arguing that the European Union is creating unreasonable environmental requirements for a EU-Mercosur free trade agreement to hinder the commercial prospects of Mercosur countries. Lula, along with outgoing Argentine President Alberto Fernández, also reiterated his more lenient line regarding the Venezuelan government, which has been suspended from the group since 2016 for not respecting its democratic requirements. The presidents of Paraguay, Uruguay, and Chile are critical of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

• Paranoia. An opinion poll conducted by Datafolha in June 2023 showed that 52% of Brazilians believe that Brazil could become a communist country. Among Bolsonaro voters, that percentage is 73%. The data show the penetration and effectiveness of the campaign that is permanently driven by the far right in Brazil that uses social networks to spread fake news that associate Lula and the PT with an alleged dictatorial and communist threat.

• Dictatorship Archives. A group of Brazilian civil society organizations including the WBO delivered this Wednesday, July 5, 2023, a letter to President Joe Biden asking the US government to declassify documents relating to the 1964 military coup and the dictatorship that followed until 1985. These documents were produced by different parts of the US government, including the CIA and State Department.

• Podcast. In the most recent episode of the “Brazil Unfiltered” podcast, James N. Green interviews Fábio Sá e Silva, professor at the University of Oklahoma and research associate at the WBO. In the conversation, both deal with the main challenges faced by the Lula government in Brazil.

Feature Article

by Michel Gherman

Working Group to Combat Hate Speech and Extremism: An Epidemic of Nazism? The new grammar of the extreme right in Brazil

On July 3, 2022, the working group to combat hate speech and extremism was launched in the auditorium of the Ministry of Citizenship and Human Rights. This process included the participation of intellectuals, members of civil society and political leaders who, over six months, produced a document assessing the polarization and political extremism found in Brazilian society today.

Led by former congresswoman and vice-presidential candidate Manuela D’Avila and law professor Camilo Onoda Caldas, the group met weekly for debates and discussions that, under the guidance and inspiration of Minister Silvio Almeida, aimed to understand what had happened in Brazil in recent years as far right forces grew and gained strength, eventually culminating in the election of Jair Messias Bolsonaro, a relatively obscure and unremarkable member of Congress who had previously been an army captain.

Bolsonaro served in the legislature for a long time, a kind of extremist carnival barker. A caricature of national politics. Grating and rude, he was never treated as a threat by the Brazilian political center, but his election in 2018 produced unprecedented levels of democratic erosion. As Ricardo Lewandovski, a retired judge of the Federal Supreme Court put it, under Bolsonaro, Brazil found itself on a path of an "effective risk of rupture" (Globonews, June 2023).

The report shows that Brazil's democratic crisis did not begin with Bolsonaro’s election and did not end with his defeat. The spirit of a violent, anti-democratic far right already animated national politics in the years prior to the captain's election and remained active after his electoral defeat in 2022. Bolsonarismo continues to exist after Bolsonaro lost the election and was ruled ineligible to seek public office until at least 2030.

As an example of this dynamic, Minister Silvio Almeida noted comments made by Pastor André Valadão during a service at the Lagoinha Church in Orlando, Florida. In an enthusiastic and emotive speech, the pastor stated that, given the impossibility of God “killing” homosexuals and “starting everything from scratch,” the faithful should be the ones to take on this task: “Now it's up to you. I’ll say it again, now it’s with you,” implying that they are the ones who should effectively murder members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Such conspiratorial and violent rhetoric is not new and draws attention to the fact that it persists after Bolsonaro left power.

It is important that the minister illustrated the working group’s mission by presenting a case like this at the opening of the event. The task remains urgent.

It also draws attention to the fact that behind the pastor in question, on the church altar, are faces of far-right world leaders next to a map of Israel covered with the Israeli flag. This too is not new in terms of the performance of the Brazilian extreme right.

In April 2017, Bolsonaro, then a pre-candidate for president, spoke at the Jewish club Hebraica do Rio de Janeiro. The audience applauded and reacted enthusiastically to what he had to say. Outside, protesters called Bolsonaro a Nazi. Inside and outside, good and evil, us and them, enemies and allies, what happened in Hebraica in Rio de Janeiro was a microcosm of what would happen in Brazil. In several groups, Bolsonarismo would produce a poignant division. Following a new political grammar, it would become necessary to produce a “Brazil of good men” that could finally combat the Brazil of moral degeneration.

Bolsonaro founded an extreme right-wing project at the Hebraica club, symbolically a place frequented by historical victims of Nazism. The move was symbolic and strategic. There, Bolsonaro used an “anti-Semitic grammar” (POSTONE, 2021) to attack indigenous peoples and quilombolas, a conspiracist perception to praise the world he imagined was possible.

When the report speaks of an “epidemic of Nazism (GHERMAN, Efraim 2022)” we must look to 2017 to understand how it was possible for a candidate frankly linked to the extreme right to reach the highest office in the Republic.

What happened at Hebraica that night was more than just a speech. Bolsonaro, with several speeches praising Nazism, Hitler, and Holocaust denialism on his resume, ceased to be a “joking and boorish” candidate and founded an extreme right-wing project.

One of the functions of the report now released by the Ministry of Citizenship and Human Rights is to set its origins before the 2018 elections and combat the epidemic of neo-Nazism that hit Brazil after he left power. For this, it is necessary to understand their strategies and their symbols.

Michel Gherman is a professor in the Department of Sociology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), where he coordinates the Interdisciplinary Center for Jewish Studies. He is a researcher at the Center for Zionism and Israel Studies at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, where he recently completed his postdoctoral studies, and at the Far Right Observatory. He also holds a PhD in History from UFRJ and a Master's in Anthropology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he was a visiting professor. Michel is a member of the Working Group to Combat Hate Speech and Extremism within the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship of the Brazilian Government, a professor in the Graduate Program in Social History at UFRJ, and an associate researcher at the WBO.

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