contents
The events are two years apart. The similarities are striking – and parliaments are increasingly under pressure.
What happened? A mob has stormed the government district in the Brazilian capital, Brasilia. Thousands of supporters of former right-wing populist President Jair Bolsonaro took over the Congress building, the Supreme Court and the Presidential Palace. The security forces are said to have the situation under control.
Are there parallels to the storming of the Capitol in Washington? The similarities between the two historical events are striking: symbolic buildings that stand for democracy and constitutional structures are stormed. Both times voted-out right-wing populist presidents play a fundamental role.
The anti-democratic actions are a direct result of the rhetoric of the Bolsonorarists.
Eduardo Jorge de Oliveira also noticed the similarities. The professor of Brazilian studies at the University of Zurich says: “The storming of the Capitol was the first thing I thought of.” A “belligerent logic” similar to that of Donald Trump was copied by Bolsonaro. He emphasizes: “The anti-democratic acts, as they are called in Brazil, can be traced back directly to the rhetoric of the Bolsonorarists.”
Legend:
A bird’s-eye view of the government district.
SRF
How are the events different? However, the two events are not entirely congruent. “The Brazilian copy has its own dynamic,” says de Oliveira. Above all, it would come from local sectors. This means that Bolsonaro’s rhetoric appeals to the lower ranks of the military, among others.
Before the storming of the government quarters, the guards of the federal district were “loosened so that the crowd could enter the palace of Planaltos, i.e. the seat of government”. In addition, de Oliveira also emphasizes in connection with the unrest of late last autumn: “The governor of Brasilia is a Bolsonarist. That means there are military sectors allied with private sector funds to keep the protesters on the streets since November.”
What is the role of the extreme right? Here the connection can be drawn directly to Donald Trump’s right-wing populist movement. Steve Bannon, former White House adviser and chief strategist, played a key role in Jair Bolsonaro’s 2018 election campaign. At the time, Bannon described Bolsonaro as a “figure like Donald Trump”.
That Bannon part of Bolsonaro denies that it was his election team. Nevertheless, Bannon has repeatedly emphasized that the elections in Brazil did not go well and that Lula was not the legitimate president. In doing so, Bannon is in line with other far-right figures such as Ali Alexander, who has called for the overthrow of the Brazilian government and judiciary.
Will such events happen more often now? “Right-wing extremists are a great threat to democracy,” emphasizes de Oliveira. Democracies are threatened, for example in Europe, but also in Latin America.
The intervals between the storming of parliaments by demonstrators are becoming shorter and shorter.
But it is also clear that the history of storming parliament buildings goes back to ancient times. Accordingly, the novelty of the events is not reflected in the fact that they happen, but in their increasingly shorter sequence. The historian Matthias Miller writes: “The intervals between the storming of parliaments by demonstrating people are getting shorter and shorter.»