Latin America
A Nation Betrayed:
What Bolsonaro’s Response to Covid-19 Means for the Future of Brazil’s Leadership written by Tommy O’Donnell
Photo: Marcos Correa, Palacio Planalto, dpa, 2020.
The United Kingdom’s government in the times of Covid-19 has been highly criticised for its response to the pandemic. A nation with one of the world’s best healthcare infrastructures having the third-highest coronavirus death count has indelibly undermined the current Conservative government’s reputation. However, if we look to even harder hit countries, we see one nation in particular with a leadership that has not managed to stand the test: Jair Bolsonaro’s Brasil.
now lies at 55%. The president’s complete disregard of the virus and his refusal to act has angered Brazilians to the point where a majority of voters now believe his handling of this crisis is unacceptable. The present-day outrage is obvious, but how, or if at all, this will affect the election in two years time is still to be seen. Before we question the future of Brazil’s leadership, it is crucial to understand how Bolsonaro landed himself in the position he is in now. A combination of economic recession, the biggest party finance corruption scandal in modern history, presidential impeachment and a wave of military rule-era nostalgia made way for a Bolsonaro-shaped political storm to sweep into Brasilia. Brazil fell victim to the classic anti-establishment rhetoric that has been seen building all over the world for the last five to ten years; the same rhetoric that has been adopted by leaders who now govern the countries with the highest death counts.
Many political commentators and academics have speculated as to why Bolsonaro, the far-right political outsider, was elected in the first place. Only two years away from the next Brazilian presidential election, this de facto referendum is at the forefront of keen political Brazilian minds. The coronavirus pandemic, however, has entirely shifted the narrative around the controversial president; when looking at Bolsonaro’s approval ratings at the beginning of the pandemic compared to now, it’s like shooting down a rollercoaster with an extremely sharp decline. On March 16th, a poll conducted by Brazilian polling firms XP and Ipespe showed that only 18% of citizens perceived Bolsonaro’s handling of Covid-19 as ‘bad’ or ‘terrible’. Compare that to June 9th, the latest poll of the same nature, that figure
First, we ought to consider how long the ‘Corona effect’, encompassing both the virus, the surrounding tragedy and the political debris it leaves in its wake, will last. It is difficult to predict how the world will look in two years, but in the case of Brazil, it may not look any different to how it does now. As of August 6th 2020,
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Dialogue • Autumn 2020
