Well, what was seen in Washington DC on January 6, 2021 got repeated in Brasilia on January 8, 2023. The rampage and the vandalism by Right-Wing frenzy, slogans to paralyse Democracy, with the demand to cancel the poll results, calling the defeated president the Winner… all these happened in the Brazilian capital in the second week of January. There are many reasons to believe that the chaos happened at the indirect instigation of former President Jair Messias Bolsonaro. It may be noted that former US President Donald John Trump had instigated his supporters to storm the Congress in a bid to thwart the certification of his successor Joseph Robinette Biden Jr‘s election victory, a couple of years ago.

Although it is debatable whether Bolsonaro was actually behind the chaos, one thing is clear that he pushed his country to the brink of a constitutional collapse by flouting democratic norms on a regular basis during his tenure as the President of Brazil. This is the similarity between the two events held in Washington DC and Brasilia within a gap of two years. In fact, once the decline of Democracy starts happening, it moves downwards at an inexorable pace. The next step of bypassing Democracy is the destruction of the very system.

It is not the case that the entire Latin American nation is in the grip of the Far-Rights. In fact, Brazil is currently half-divided between followers of Democracy and Right-Wing non-democrats. Although Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva managed to win the October 2022 Presidential Polls by receiving 60,345,999 (50.90%) popular votes, his Right-Wing opponent Bolsonaro bagged 58,206,354 (49.2%) of the votes. In other words, Lula registered a marginal victory. As a large section of the Brazilian population does not believe in Democracy; the Congress, Supreme Court and other Government establishments have become victims of terrible anarchy. That is why anxiety and necessary actions become necessary when Democracy begins to collapse in a Democratic country.

The stability of Brazil depends on how quickly President Lula can normalise the situation and set an example by punishing the law-breakers. Hopefully, Bolsonaro would also show his political maturity, accept his electoral defeat, and keep his supporters cool. Else, Brazil would become unstable, exactly what the anarchists wanted on January 8, 2023.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das