Prominent figures from across Brazil’s political spectrum have a published a high-profile manifesto calling for a united front to protect Brazilian democracy and lives amid growing alarm over President Jair Bolsonaro’s authoritarian outbursts and shambolic response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Movimento Estamos Juntos (We’re In This Together Movement) was launched on Saturday as Brazil overtook France to become the nation with the fourth-highest official death toll.
About 1,000 novel coronavirus deaths are being confirmed each day as Latin America’s biggest economy cements itself as a major focus of the pandemic.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“The choice is between democracy and barbarity... It is our country’s future that’s at stake,” tweeted Marcelo Freixo, a left-wing congressman, as he endorsed the movement’s creation alongside leading lights of Brazilian academia, culture and politics.
Maranhao Governor Flavio Dino, another prominent leftist who has also joined, said Brazil’s very democracy was at risk if Bolsonaro’s tens of millions of opponents were unable to unite.
“Bolsonaro sometimes comes across as a caricature, something comical. But he’s dangerous — he and the followers of this fanatical far-right sect are dangerous,” Dino said.
Dino said the new movement was inspired by Diretas Ja — a historic pro-democracy campaign that helped end two decades of military rule in the 1980s.
“Just as there was this broad coalition to defeat the dictatorship we believe we must now build a broad coalition to avoid a new dictatorship,” Dino said.
Lobao, a right-wing rockstar, said he had signed up out of disgust at the “genocidal fiasco” caused by Bolsonaro’s response to the pandemic.
“We cannot allow this mockery and this utter negligence towards public health to continue,” said the musician, who voted for Bolsonaro in 2018 before regretting his choice.
The movement’s foundation came as a record 33,274 new coronavirus cases on Saturday pushed Brazil’s total to nearly 500,000. It had more than 515,000 confirmed cases as of yesterday.
More than 29,000 Brazilians have died since the first death was confirmed in the middle of March, meaning only the US, the UK and Italy have lost more lives.
Despite this, Bolsonaro continues to flout social distancing and has failed to appoint a permanent health minister after two were forced out in under a month.
On Sunday, he paraded through the capital, Brasilia, on horseback, and without a mask during an anti-democracy protest by his devotees.
The right-wing populist has further stoked tensions by attending a succession of anti-democratic protests where demonstrators have called for Congress and the Supreme Court to be closed or even torched.
Last week, after police raided the homes and offices of several key Bolsonaro supporters, the president appeared outside his residence in a tie adorned with images of assault rifles.
“This is fucking over,” Bolsonaro bellowed.
His politician son, Eduardo, warned Brazil was approaching “a moment of rupture.”
The manifesto — which urges Brazilians to mobilize in defense of “life, freedom and democracy” — received support from an unusually broad church, reflecting the growing anti-Bolsonaro revolt.
Its more than 100,000 signatories include former Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardosop; Felipe Neto, a YouTube celebrity with 38 million followers; and some of Brazil’s top actors, including Fernanda Montenegro, Tais Araujo and Lazaro Ramos.
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