The event had been announced for weeks, even months or years. It was no less shocking and painful. Sunday, January 8, 2023 will undoubtedly go down as one of the darkest days in Brazilian history. The one where the country’s main democratic institutions were stormed, invaded and vandalized by crowds of far-right protesters. A trauma, and an unprecedented challenge for the young republic.
All afternoon, supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro attacked the buildings in the Place des Trois-Pouvoirs: works by the architect Oscar Niemeyer, a symbol of democracy and Brazilian modernist genius. The Congress, and its concrete domes, the glass cube of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) and the marble parallelepiped of the Planalto, the workplace of the Head of State, adorned with a long opaline ramp.
This ramp, precisely. Bolsonarist demonstrators marched on it on Sunday by the hundreds. Barely a week ago, the 1er January, however, it was a triumphant Lula who brought her up. Faced with tens of thousands of supporters, the new left-wing president, radiant, lived his Republican coronation. The page of Jair Bolsonaro’s four years in power seemed well and truly turned.
In the following days, his ministers were sworn in, often in emotional speeches. “The previous government is a thing of the past”then goes so far as to entrust the World Mauro Vieira, new Minister of Foreign Relations, on January 5. Two days later, Lula left the capital and flew to the interior of the state of Sao Paulo, to visit the locality of Araraquara, victim of serious floods. Confident, he thinks his base is solid.
Serious mistake. In Brasilia, the last square of Jair Bolsonaro’s “soldiers” did not demobilize, and continued to contest the verdict of the election of October 30, 2022. Between January 7 and 8, dozens of buses, conveying more than 4,000 people , converge opposite the army headquarters, where hundreds of far-right activists have been camped for weeks. An 8 kilometer march through the capital is scheduled for Sunday. Objective: the place of the Three Powers.
Dantesque sacking
Around 2 p.m., the procession sets off and, an hour later, a crowd of Brazilian flags and Seleçao jerseys descends in a single block on the institutions of the capital. A few minutes are enough to circumvent a font that is quickly outdated. Armed with chair legs, pipes, cobblestones and fireworks, dressed in flip-flops and football shirts, Bolsonaro’s “soldiers” smash the windows of palaces. The sacking begins. She will be daunting.
You have 75.85% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.