Commentary
In Brazil, each vote is useful for redeeming democracy
Lula represents not only the PT, the left and democracy. He represents and unites all those who oppose Bolsonaro and Bolsonarism, who identify with this goal.
One of the messages favoring a utilitarian vote in Brazil explains the situation clearly: If you vote for Lula, Lula wins in the first round, while if you vote for another candidate, Bolsonaro passes in the second round.
Political clarity lies in understanding that the dividing line, today, at the end of the electoral campaign, is not between those who were against or in favor of the coup against Dilma Roussef, nor is it possible to find it in the space between the PT and anti-petism (i.e. those against the PT). The fundamental polarization is between Bolsonarism and anti-Bolsonarism, the fundamental goal is to remove Jair Bolsonaro from the presidency, prevent him from continuing to use the government to undermine democracy and attack all those who disagree with his hate speech and his economic policy in favor of speculative capital.
In this sense, Lula represents not only the PT, the left and democracy. He represents and unites all those who oppose Bolsonaro and Bolsonarism, who identify with this goal.
Every day that passes, support for Lula grows from people who are keen to explain their differences with the PT, who are not left-wing or were undecided and thought they were voting for other candidates. It’s time to earn votes that can lead Lula to win the first round on Sunday, avoiding any coup adventures.
The right realizes that it cannot win with a candidate like Bolsonaro, with his nefarious speeches and his attitudes. But he tries to prevent Lula from winning in the first round.
In this campaign, the right has been able to count on the support of the media, which have fished out the accusations against Lula, the PT, the left, presenting anti-petism as a counterpoint to anti-Bolsonarism. But the right has nothing to propose to the country. It insists only on the alleged risk represented by the return of the PT to the government and a new mandate for Lula.
In Brazil there have been many elections that have decided the future of the country. Those won by Fernando Collor de Mello, aided by Tv Globo with a falsified version of the debate he held with Lula, in 1989, were the first after the dictatorship (the previous ones had taken place almost 30 years earlier) and pushed the country into a neo-liberal cycle that lasted from 1990 to 2002.
The 2002 elections brought the PT to the Presidency of the Republic for the first time, with the victory of Lula. And the most virtuous cycle in Brazilian history up to that point began, with the strengthening of democracy, economic development, a redistribution of income through the creation of 20 million formal jobs and an increase in minimum wages by 70%, considering inflation.
For this reason, the PT governments were democratically elected and re-elected in the four successive elections. It took a coup d’état — a political sentence with no legal basis against Dilma and the equally unfounded arrest and conviction of Lula — for the cycle to close.
After the failure of the neoliberal restoration governments of Temer and Bolsonaro, plus the disasters wrought by the latter at the head of a deeply neoliberal, authoritarian and repressive government that has fueled Brazil’s violence, the spread of weapons and the loss of international prestige, the elections of October 2 are the most important in history. They will either prolong the current catastrophic cycle — something that no poll indicates — or they will reopen a virtuous cycle in the history of the country.
The choice is therefore between two antagonistic worlds, two different models of Brazil. Defeating Bolsonarism — and doing it in the first round — has a profound meaning. It means rejecting the use of institutions to promote inequality, violence, the protection of militias and the corrupt family that has taken over the state. It means reaffirming the value of democracy, so that it will never be destroyed again. It means making the state an instrument of economic growth and social inclusion, guaranteeing minimally dignified conditions for the entire population. It means recovering the degraded image of Brazil in the world.
In the decisive hour of the most decisive elections, with the right planning to take the dispute to the ballot, to elect Lula in the first round and deliver the best possible Congress, capable of redeeming Brazil, no vote can be lost.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/ogni-voto-e-utile-per-riscattare-la-democrazia on 2022-09-30