His sons call him “01”, a military expression which means the leader. His supporters see him as the savior of the nation. His detractors do not hesitate to call him a “rot“. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, candidate for his own succession, leaves no one indifferent and for good reason. Dividing, wielding the art of provocation and excess at will, this far-right politician does not stopped shocking dince his election in 2018, with provocative speeches on dictatorship, women, homosexuality, firearms and the pandemic. Ifractured an already very fragile Brazil like never before and awakened its old demons.
While the first round of the presidential election is being held on Sunday, October 2, a documentary, titled Jair Bolsonaro, another Brazilrealized by Laetitia Rossi and Ingrid Piponiot, broadcast at 8:55 p.m. on France 5, retraces the career of this former soldier who came out of nowhere, but who did not come to power by chance. Follower of a hard and uninhibited right, relentlessly lambasting the press, contributing to the destruction of public institutions guaranteeing indigenous rights and socio-environmental rights, he knew how to seduce the elites as well as the poor thanks in large part to the evangelical lobby.
In 2018, “Bolsonaro is perceived as a conservative mantestifies the journalist Bruno Meyerfeld, author of the book Brazilian nightmare. A candidate who speaks against marriage for same-sex couples, against abortion, for faith, religion, etc. He is a Catholic by birth but who was baptized in the waters of the Jordan in Israel by an evangelical pastor and who, suddenly, managed to carry this speech in a very conservative country.
A speech relayed by the richest and most powerful evangelical pastors in the country. After playing a major role in the election of Jair Bolsonaro in 2018, by calling on their 65 million followers to vote for him, some evangelists have been thanked by being appointed to prime government positions.
This is the case of Damares Alves, Lawyer and pastor, who was from January 2019 to March 2022 Minister of Women, Family and Human Rights. She is known throughout the country for her ultra-conservative remarks, and more particularly for her positions concerning the defense of conversion therapies intended for homosexuals. A prohibited practice in Brazil, which the evangelical lobby is trying to legalize.
Even more worrying is the presence of a pastor at the head of the Ministry of Education. “Today, Brazilian education faces political interference on technical matters, worries sociologist Flavia Rios in the film. In particular, the government is adapting textbooks or baccalaureate questions.
Above all, students can denounce their teacher (thanks to an emergency number) if they consider that the subjects discussed in class are too ideological according to government criteria. (…) The professor has become an enemy of the state.”
Flavia Rios, sociologistin “Jair Bolsonaro, another Brazil”
But the unwavering support displayed by evangelists over the past four years is beginning to wane. Dissonant voices from some important members of the Church began to be heard during this new electoral campaign, considering that Jair Bolsonaro had done nothing for the poorest Brazilians.
The documentary Jair Bolsonaro, another Brazil directed by Laetitia Rossi and Ingrid Piponiot is broadcast at 8:55 p.m. on France 5, Sunday October 2.