This
answer is quite simple: there was no credible alternative. Bolsonaro is pretty
controversial because of all his odd remarks over his years in parliament. But
exactly those antics have worked on his behalf, they have proven that he is
honest and doesn’t care too much about public opinion. It was exactly this
sometimes almost brutal honesty that always got him reelected to congress.
Secondly
he doesn’t really represent any political party. He represents,
though somewhat imperfect, an institution that Brazilians still trust, the
military, which in turn represents order, disaster relief and peace troops like
those in Haiti and Rio de Janeiro. Brazilians are not afraid of their military
any more than Austrians are, not even the armed criminal groups in Rio de
Janeiro. An exception might be some left extremists.
In
order to really understand what led Brazilians to vote for Bolsonaro you have
to understand the sheer magnitude of the problems the Brazilians are facing.
It
all started when it turned out that the government of the left populist
president Lula da Silva was paying a generous monthly allowance to a large
number of members of parliament to vote for his agenda.
The
Supreme Court under the leadership of a German trained judge condemned the
ringleader of the scheme, the president’s chief of staff, and some others to a
few years of jail. That was unheard of until then because acting politicians
enjoy special legal protection until they leave office. In other words, as long
as they have good lawyers they won’t be prosecuted unless caught in the act,
like in this case. The director of the bank who had embezzled the money for the
scheme was sentenced to 40 years in jail though.
The
next chief of staff became the new president thanks to a billion dollar
election campaign. Dilma Rousseff proved incompetent and led the country into a
recession, greatly increasing the number of unemployed. She was ousted through
an impeachment process by the parliament that gave in to the enormous pressure
from the population who took to the streets in the largest protests in modern
Brazilian history when it came to light where the billions had come from…
One
of the main reasons for the protest was the so called “lava-jato” scandal,
named after an actual “car wash” that was used to launder money for the scheme.
Non-Brazilians think of the “Lava–Jato” as just another corruption scandal, but
it’s far, far more than that. It’s a seemingly unending long series of
scandals. As if it were a fiction TV series it was on the news daily for months
without end. There seemed to be a new episode almost every week.
As
more and more people got arrested the businessmen didn’t want to follow the
example of that one banker and go to jail for corrupt politicians. They decided
to confess to get less severe sentences. Some of the country’s richest and most
influential people who had thought themselves above the law were arrested. This
went on week after week with new scandals unfolding as a result of those
confessions.
The
top brass of the national oil company appointed by the left populist
governments was convicted for paying billions to grease Brasilia’s political
apparatus. Petrobras eventually had to pay an 850 million dollar fine in the US
for having embezzled the investors’ funds. Every day people turned on their TV
wondering who got arrested next.
The
carnival theme song of 2016 was about a Japanese-Brazilian federal policeman
with dark sunglasses who seemed to be ever present on the almost weekly arrests
shown in the news: “I was sound asleep when I heard a knock at the door. I
looked outside the window and there stood the Japanese form the federal
police.” The federal judge Sergio Moro who led the investigations became the
national hero. He is the most admired person in the country.
Suddenly
there was hope for an end of the ubiquitous corruption that has been plaguing
Brazil for decades. Part of the billions that had been sent abroad started to
return when Swiss prosecutors started to cooperate. Over three billion dollars
were rescued! This ever increasing impact of history’s biggest corruption
scandal that was evolving before everybody’s eyes on TV couldn’t be stopped by
parliament.
Things
just went far too fast and politicians feared the wrath of the people. Finally
even ex-president Lula da Silva’s hour came when his first condemnation in a
long line of accusations was confirmed by a higher court. He went to jail for
money laundering and corruption. Polls showed that respect for politicians
scored worse than for prostitutes.
Along with corruption TV news is constantly portraying the daily violence: almost two hundred homicides every day. Gangsters in Rio de Janeiro’s hills show off their heavy guns on social media, the traffic on main highway through Rio regularly comes to a halt due to gun fire from the two conflicting sides. Drivers who seek shelter under the cars aren't interested in a candidate who promises to reduce the price of kitchen gas. They fear for their lives. A politician who promises to tackle this kind of violence is much more convincing.
The
ex-governor of Rio accumulated 150 years in jail and is now facing his 26th charge.
Fraud and corruption schemes from stealing funds for children’s school lunches
to embezzling money for ambulances have led Rio de Janeiro to bankruptcy,
unable to pay teachers and other public servants in time. Police is incapable
to maintain public safety. The army that had to step in during the Olympics and
the World Cup is now finally employed permanently and took over the command of
the police forces from politicians with divided interests.
In
the midst of all that turmoil this somewhat ridiculous Jair Bolsonaro comes
along and wants to be president. He has almost no money and only 30 seconds of
time on TV, but he is well known for his honesty and tough stance. His
adversary, the formerly all powerful and now infamous ex-president Lula leads
his campaign form his prison cell, where he receives his staff almost daily,
even though He just won’t recognize the facts and insists in his
innocence. Much less will he recognize any wrongdoing of his party that lost
its influence almost all over Brazil. He doesn’t give up until the very last
possible minute when he has to designate a substitute, Fernando Haddad,
ex-mayor of Sao Paulo, because he himself had signed a law that forbids people
condemned by higher courts to run for office. Only when Haddad obviously
doesn’t do well in the elections his visits stop.
He
too doesn’t want to admit his party’s obvious errors, much less apologize. The
other candidates are all the same old people, the same old promises, some of
them probably next ones to be indicted by the prosecutors. Bolsonaro takes to
social media and people rally behind him, hoping to put an end to the power of
the old corrupt political class that had emerged during the years of the new
republic.
One
day an ex-member of the extreme left stabs him in a very professional, almost
unnoticed knife attack. He nearly dies, but the doctors rescue him. In his
hospital bed he can neither campaign nor participate in TV debates. He doesn’t
have to. He has become the symbol of a population fed up with corruption who
take to the streets in this name.
Bolsonaro
wins the election with the greatest number of votes in modern Brazilian
history. Haddad gets voted only in the northeastern states where the old government
has done a lot to help poor people, as well as buried billions in
infrastructure projects that never were completed and serve only to grease
local companies and politicians.
But
the country is divided like never before. This campaign was fought basically
only on social media, with nearly unrestraint hate and fake news. The new
president faces a dysfunctional though slightly renewed parliament. His agenda
to bring a little order into the chaos is clear to everybody, but extremely
difficult to implement.
As
the saying goes, hope is the last one to die and God is
Brazilian. So for now the majority of the Brazilians are relieved,
thinking, thank God, not those guys again.
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