What´s going on in Brazil? A quick summary of events
Like most things happening in politics, we have a general feeling that things have been going on for so long that if we do not follow them since the beginning, it will be impossible for us to understand them. So, in order for you to be able to catch up on Brazilian recent happenings, we have prepared a summary for you!
The current political situation derives from years of general feeling of negligence of the government and the population, who feels that they pay high taxes but do not see their living standards improving, according to Fernando Filgueiras, a political science professor from Minas Gerais Federal University.
In 2010, former president Dilma Rousseff was elected for her first 4-year mandate with 56.05% of the votes, making her the first woman ever to be elected in Brazil’s history. Her government program was a continuation of Lula’s, the former president who could not be elected anymore since he had already run for two consecutive terms. So, his party (Workers’ Party, or Partido dos Trabalhadores – PT) decided to continue the same program but with a different candidate.
The following years were not as eventful, but a few discrepancies between many societal groups occurred. The first act was the passing of a new Forest Law Code by the Chamber of Deputies in May 2011. The code would ease sanctions on a group of farmers who had chopped down part of the natural forest in their lands. This decision was reversed by the president in October 2012, claiming landowners had to replant the deforested area. This decision turned farm lobbyists, a very large and powerful group of society with deep political influences, against her.
On August 2012, the president passed a law mandating that 50% of admissions in public universities had to be reserved exclusively for students from state schools and for students deriving from black, mixed-race, and indigenous backgrounds. The long-term goal was to decrease inequalities in the country by facilitating access to higher education for people whose public schooling put them at a disadvantage. Moreover, the reason behind this is that the state school system was lacking behind private-owned schools, who represented more than 90% of people who concluded higher education, according to Revista Forum. However, the elites and part of middle-class also turned against the president and the party, consequently.
All this indignation with the president was topped off by multiple public transportation fares increases in numerous cities around the country during the first semester of 2013. The result were the famous June 2013 protests, which swooped Brazil. However, the protests quickly escalated from being about the fare increase to a general dissatisfaction with the poor quality of public services (schools, hospitals, and police force mostly) and the outrageous expenses of hosting the 2014 World Cup. Responding to the unrest, the central government reduced taxes in fares, allowing for the diminishing of protests until eventually ceased.
In October 2014, President Dilma Rousseff wins again in a re-election, but only with 51.64% of the votes. This was quickly followed by Petrobras corruption scandals arising in the famous Carwash operations, starting in March 2015. This was the biggest corruption scandal ever seen in Brazil, and Dilma was a company chairperson (that is, elected by the board of directors). The results were massive protests against the president.
An impeachment process started in 2016 to remove the president from office, which was done in May 2016. However, if she was not proven guilty in 6 months she could return to office. Allegations by her critics claimed she illegally moved money between government funds (BBC News).
The Olympic games were normally held in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, but with massive overspending, and the municipality and state ended up financially broke. At the same time, Dilma was officially removed from office and her vice-president, Michel Temer, was put into office until the end of what her mandate should have lasted, January 1st, 2019.
President Temer had the smallest acceptance in Brazil’s history, with studies done by IBOPE (Brazil’s biggest opinion research and statistics agency) pointing to scores under 6% (Reuters). Nonetheless, this did not stop him from initiating a 20-year government spending freeze, mainly affecting education, health, and public safety, in order to recover Brazil’s falling economy. Moreover, he is also facing corruption charges since he supposedly received money from a giant meatpacking company called JBS (BBC News)
The Car-Wash Operation, the same one that found out about Petrobras and the massive corruption scandal surrounding the company, was now accusing former president Lula of also being involved in the scheme. He was imprisoned in April 2018, amid an electoral year. Nevertheless, Partido dos Trabalhadores claimed that Lula would come out as their candidate for the upcoming elections. The decision was denied by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (Tribunal Superior Eleitoral – TSE, in Portuguese).
Now we get to the result of the past elections, held in October 2018. Amid great dissatisfaction with the current situation of the country, people refused to vote for the party that had supposedly caused that much harm for them in the past, as well as neglected the population for many years (Try to get something to back up this statement, if not its fine). PT had been in power from 2003 until 2016, when Dilma was impeached. Amongst the candidates, Fernando Haddad (PT’s candidate) lost in the second round of elections, leaving Jair Bolsonaro as the future president of the nation.
Bolsonaro is sometimes referred to as “Brazil’s Trump” since he has been accused of sexism on his speeches, as well as unnecessary comments regarding the LGBT society and women. However, his ascension is understandable as he was the only other option to a government who, according to people, was sinking the country (RTVE).
However, what will come out of this confusion is still unknown. But now that you are up to date on Brazil’s political environment, you have all the necessary background to keep on following the news and understanding them in full terms.
Sources:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-35810578
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-politics-poll/poll-shows-improvement-in-brazil-president-temers-low-approval-rating-idUSKBN1EE1H3
https://www.revistaforum.com.br/digital/138/sistema-de-cotas-completa-dez-anos-nas-universidades-brasileiras/
http://www.rtve.es/noticias/20181027/jair-bolsonaro-ex-militar-se-alimenta-ira/1827680.shtml
http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0104-62762009000200005
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