Brazil Elects Far-Right President Jair Bolsonaro

Brazilians elected politician Jair Bolsonaro to the presidency on October 28. The election was the culmination of a stunning rise from political punchline to head of state for Bolsonaro. He defeated Francisco Haddad in the second round of the Brazilian elections with a comfortable margin of between 55 percent and 45 percent.

As a formerly elected Federal Deputy in the Chamber of Deputies, Jair Bolsonaro is affiliated with the Social Liberal Party, a nationalist and conservative party, according to the Independent. His campaign revolved around dissatisfaction with the political establishment in Brazil, governed by the Workers’ Party since 2003, and a return to conservative social values. The Workers’ Party is the party of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff, two disgraced former presidents. In 2014, the Guardian reported that the Senate impeached Rousseff for allegations of corruption related to the state-run oil company, Petrobras. The Supreme Federal Court barred Lula, widely considered the front runner leading up to the election, from running in the 2018 election due to a conviction for corruption, according to Reuters.

Bolsonaro repeatedly voiced support for the former military dictatorship that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985, according to the Guardian. In addition to casting his vote in favor of Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment, Bolsonaro also praised an infamous torturer during the dictatorship, an individual that tortured Dilma herself following her arrest for pro-democracy actions in the 1970s, according to the Guardian. TeleSur reported on the homophobic, sexist, and racist remarks Bolsonaro has frequently made throughout his time in office. Large protests, led by the #EleNao campaign, organized to try to stop Bolsonaro’s victory. BBC noted that tens of thousands marched in the streets of Brazil’s largest cities to draw attention to his inflammatory rhetoric.

In August, Bolsonaro survived a stabbing attack during a campaign event in Minas Gerais. According to Al Jazeera, many political analysts in Brazil believe that this attack is directly linked to his dramatic surge in the polls in the lead-up to the election. One factor that led to his victory is the spread of fake news by backers of Bolsonaro through Whatsapp, a major social media network in the country. Folha de Sao Paulo published allegations just before the election that a group of Brazilian entrepreneurs embarked on an illegal multi-million dollar campaign to attack the Workers’ Party. In Brazil, it is illegal for corporations to give campaign donations. However, it appears that this campaign was able to send hundreds of millions of messages to Brazilian voters through Whatsapp.

International reactions to Jair Bolsonaro’s election have been mixed. Many media organizations like the New York Times and the Washington Post have denounced Bolsonaro and discussed the potential ramifications for marginalized groups in Brazil that may be targeted by the new administration. Meanwhile, international investors and financial media, such as the Wall Street Journal, preferred Bolsonaro over his leftist opponent, Haddad, due to his promises of economic privatization (CUT OFF) and deregulation.

Jair Bolsonaro will be sworn into office on January 1. Some Brazilians are hopeful for an end to the extensive corruption associated with the previous presidencies, while others are fearful of human rights erosion under Bolsonaro.