Bolsonaro promises a “new Brazil” after turbulent times due to the pandemic and the crisis

The current president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, will seek re-election for the 2022-2026 mandate of the tenth largest economy in the world, along with former Defense Minister Braga Netto as his running mate.

The Liberal Party recently made its candidacy official during a national convention in Rio de Janeiro. Bolsonaro has led the nation since 2018, when he defeated Fernando Haddad, then the candidate of the Workers’ Party, in the second round.

After turbulent times due to the pandemic and an economic and social crisis in the country, Bolsonaro promises a “new Brazil, without a pandemic, without corruption”, in a clear attack on his opponent, Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, who was accused of corruption and robbery, but who leads the polls with 45% of voting intentions, compared to 36% for Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro is a former military man who was elected councilor of Rio de Janeiro in 1989 and left office in 1991, when he began his career as a federal deputy in Brasilia.

Seven terms and 28 years later, Bolsonaro was elected as the leader of the nation in 2018, with 55% of the vote. Conservative by nature, he is a defender of Christian and family values.

Since the beginning of his political career, Bolsonaro has fought for the rights of the military and the police. In an article published in 1986, Bolsonaro criticized the low income of the lower-ranking military. Due to the text, he spent 15 days in jail.

Throughout his mandate, he adopted a right-wing policy, prioritizing the economy and defending policies such as the right to own weapons and the privatization of state companies.

The main policies of the Bolsonaro government

The “Reforma da Previdencia” (Pension Reform), carried out by the Bolsonaro government, was a key milestone in the Brazilian economy.

The Pension Reform changed the retirement age for men and women, requiring a higher age and more years of collaboration in the labor market. This measure aims to reduce the deficit between the distribution of money for pensioners and the collection of these funds by the active working population.

According to Luis Eduardo Afonso, a professor at the University of São Paulo, “the reform reduces this deficit over time, but this happens at the cost of reducing distributed funds.” In other words, although the reform reduces the deficit, pensioners are going to receive a lower value than they used to.

Auxilio Brasil (AB) is a social program instituted by the Bolsonaro government and guarantees that families in a state of poverty or extreme poverty have access to monthly financial support distributed by the government.

At the beginning of the program, the average value of the Brazil Aid was R$ 217.18, (39.66 dollars). Today, the amount has increased to R$400 (US$73.05), a significant difference compared to Bolsa Familia, the Workers’ Party (PT) program, which provided a total of R$178 (US$32.51) for needy families.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Bolsonaro launched the Emergency Aid, which distributed $600 a month to those most in need.

According to the economist Naercio Menezes Filho, “with the Emergency Aid, the country managed to reduce poverty, extreme poverty, and income inequality.”

As he had promised throughout his campaign, Bolsonaro signed four decrees that make the use and carrying of weapons in Brazil more flexible.

Now, Brazilian citizens can purchase six guns, instead of just four, as long as they complete the Firearm Registration Certificate. The government also allows more professionals the right to buy weapons and ammunition controlled by the Army. These and other measures have eased control and facilitated access to weapons.

According to the Brazilian Public Security Forum, the use of weapons increased 97.1% after the relaxation of Bolsonaro. Following the decrees, in 2020 there was a 5% increase in the number of violent deaths compared to 2019.

The Institute of Applied Economic Research estimates that a 1% increase in the number of firearms circulating in the country leads to a 2% increase in homicide rates.

670,000 deaths: Bolsonaro and the COVID-19 pandemic

“We must face our problems, enough of freshness and ‘mimimi’. How long are they going to keep crying?” said the president about COVID-19 in 2021, referring to the concern of the population.

The virus has left more than 670,000 deaths in Brazil.

Throughout the pandemic, the president repeatedly acted against protective measures that sought to prevent the spread of the virus. In addition to promoting ineffective remedies against COVID-19, such as chloroquine, Bolsonaro ignored Pfizer’s offer of 70 million doses of vaccines.

According to Carlos Murillo, manager of Pfizer in Latin America, the Bolsonaro government rejected three offers from the pharmaceutical company, which sought to reach an agreement on the delivery of vaccines that could have been distributed in December 2020, reported.

It is estimated that the delay in the purchase of vaccines cost a total of 95,000 lives, according to calculations by epidemiologist Pedro Hallal, according to the BBC.

Bolsonaro promises

Bolsonaro has declared that, if he is elected president, he will continue the process of privatizing state companies. The Bolsonaro government promises to privatize Petrobras, the main Brazilian company dedicated to the exploration and production of oil and natural gas.

During the Climate Summit in 2021, Bolsonaro promised to zero carbon emissions in the country by 2050.

He also promised to eliminate illegal deforestation by 2030. The environmental crisis worries Brazilians and the international community. The Deforestation Alert System (SAD) has registered a record in deforestation, which in 2022 has exceeded the rates of the last 15 years.

Like his opponent Lula da Silva, Bolsonaro has promised the “cheapest fuel in the world.”

What do voters think of Bolsonaro?

According to a Datafolha survey, the groups that most reject Bolsonaro are the unemployed (66%), blacks (63%), students (62%) and women (61%).

Throughout his political career, Bolsonaro has repeatedly been accused of criticizing and insulting women, according to reports. The most striking case occurred in 2003, when he declared that federal deputy Maria do Rosario did not deserve to be raped because she was “very ugly”.

Sandra Rigatto, a university professor, said that she refuses to vote for Bolsonaro. “The president represents everything I never supported,” she said.

Rigatto said that “Bolsonaro stopped organizing social public policies, such as the demarcation of indigenous and quilombola lands due to the interests of agribusiness.”

During the Bolsonaro government, a “zero demarcation” policy was implemented. At the beginning of his mandate, the president had declared that “there would be no more demarcations of indigenous lands,” but in the first two years indigenous invasions increased 137%, according to research by the Missionary Indigenous Council. In 2020 alone, 263 cases of “possessory invasions, illegal exploration of resources and damage to heritage” were registered.

Rigatto acknowledges that the $600 emergency aid distributed to the poorest by the Bolsonaro government throughout the pandemic was extremely important in reducing economic inequality in the country.

According to the investigations, Bolsonaro and Lula will compete for the presidency in the second round of the elections.

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