Brazil defeated Serbia 2-0 in the first group match of Group G on November 24.
Although both goals were scored by Richarlison, and Neymar, who was the focus of attention, was forced to retire due to an ankle injury in the 73rd minute, Brazil is still one of the favorites to win the World Cup. It is expected to become the first country in history to win the six-degree stick cup.
Yet amidst domestic political polarization, the country, whose football is a major element of its identity, has failed to reunite in support of the country's journey to glory.
A month before the World Cup in Qatar, right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, dubbed "Trump of the Tropics," was in a meeting with former Workers' Party president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who was jailed for corruption. Tangled in an inextricable presidential race.
The former packaged the election as a "confrontation between good and evil" and "no success or benevolence", while the latter also regarded Bolsonaro, who questioned the fairness of the vote in advance, as a "democratic threat". Both sides also tried their best to demonize their opponents, forming a Brazil Most divisive election since democratization in the 80s.
The Rightwing of the "Yellow Shirts"
Football has thus fallen into the political vortex.
In the past ten years, the Brazilian right wing has used the Brazilian team's yellow jersey, which matches the main color of the Brazilian flag, as its main political color.
This design has been used since 1954. Since 2013, it has gradually become the main color of the anti-Workers' Party President Dilma Rousseff (Dilma Rousseff, Lula's hand-picked successor) demonstrations. It contrasts with the red of the Workers' Party and also highlights the Patriotism of the protesters.
After Bolsonaro emerged as an outspoken right-wing lunatic and won the presidential election in 2018, this shade of yellow (plus a little green) has become its representative political color more generally.
When people see a large group of "Yellow Shirts" rallying on the street, they basically know that this is Bolsonaro's rally without thinking too much.
Many left-wing or centrist voters are worried that the symbol representing Brazil has been snatched away by the right. A Brazilian writer even said that the yellow jersey is "irredeemable".
Before the second round of voting in this year's presidential election, Bolsonaro called on supporters to wear yellow shirts when voting.
Lula made a star appearance at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt.
He emphasizes the maintenance of the Amazon rainforest, unlike Bolsonaro who does not care about the life or death of the rainforest.
(AP)
In the end, Lula defeated Bolsonaro by less than two percentage points.
When countries around the world immediately congratulated Lula on his election, Bolsonaro, who already questioned the election script like Trump, did not dare to act according to the script immediately.
Although he refused to publicly admit defeat, he also initiated the procedure for the transfer of power.
Recently, Bolsonaro once asked the electoral court to cancel the relevant ballots on the grounds that the software of some voting machines was faulty, but was rejected by the court. Nearly 23 million Brazilian reals (real, about 33 million Hong Kong dollars) were fined.
However, even if Bolsonaro's re-election of the president has been unable to recover, his "die-hard" supporters refuse to give up.
Outside military camps across Brazil, many "yellow shirts" have gathered since the run-off vote on October 30, demanding that the military intervene to overthrow the election and help Bolsonaro continue to be president.
Some Bolsonaro supporters also began to distinguish stores by color, with red representing Workers' Party supporters and yellow representing Bolsonaro supporters, and boycotted accordingly.
Since Bo's supporters tend to use violence (several Workers' Party members have been killed by right-wing attacks since the election), people are worried that this division and confrontation will continue to deteriorate.
On November 15, Bolsonaro supporters held up signs calling for the military to intervene.
(AP)
Although Lula himself stated that he would proudly wear the yellow jersey during the World Cup, and some Workers' Party supporters believed that they should "take back" the yellow jersey from the right wing, but some people who opposed Bolsonaro chose Represented by Brazil's other dark blue jersey, avoid being mistaken for being with the right wing.
Why do players support right-wing madmen?
What makes the national football team more politically divisive is the political statements of the main players of the team.
Among them, Brazil star Nima is one of Bolsonaro's most important supporters.
A few days before the first round of voting on October 2, Nima posted a video on TikTok, playing the song "Vote for Bolsonaro" and dancing; his Instagram is also full of support for Bolsonaro , including some false information about elections.
He had appeared on Bolsonaro's show before the second round of voting, and even said that he would pay tribute to Bolsonaro with his first goal in the World Cup in Qatar.
(This may embarrass fans and players who support Brazil but oppose Bolsonaro.)
The close relationship between Nima and Bolsonaro did not happen overnight.
In 2019, when Nema was accused of rape, Bolsonaro publicly expressed support for Nema.
Nima, who is being pursued by the Brazilian authorities for tax arrears, whose father visited Bolsonaro in 2019, has not yet paid back his tax arrears.
Lula once ridiculed that Nema was afraid that if he won the election, Nema would find that he has not yet had to pay back the tax arrears because Bolsonaro just let him go.
Bolsonaro and Neymar (with english subtitles). 🇧🇷🇺🇸
Compartilhem esse vídeo, é muito importante. pic.twitter.com/HomkPvQDas
— Tradutor de Direita (@TradutordoBR) October 23, 2022
And Nima is not the only Brazilian star who supports Bolsonaro.
Ronaldinho and Rivaldo already supported Bolsonaro in 2018.
Lucas Moura, Daniel Alves, etc. are also supporters of Bolsonaro.
Some Brazilian historians believe that these famous players and Bolsonaro do have a political and ideological fit.
Bolsonaro exalts personal achievements and believes that everyone can overcome difficulties with their own abilities, and this is exactly the case with a football player's career-many children born in poor families in Brazil hope to overcome difficulties with their own abilities. Football talent and ability broke through the poverty of the family and made some achievements.
(Of course, only a very small number of people can achieve this dream.)
Of course, there are different opinions within the football world on this kind of right-wing politicization.
The Brazilian national team has taught Tite a public dissatisfaction with the political overtones of the team, and has decided not to continue the seven-decade tradition of bringing the team to the capital to meet the president, whether it was Bolsonaro before stepping down at the end of the year. Luo, or Lula who came to power in January next year.
However, Teddy also co-signed and published an open letter in August this year to defend the voting mechanism and Brazil's democratic system, which has been unreasonably questioned by Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro supporters gather outside a military camp in Rio de Janeiro.
(AP)
For the current political division, Lula's ruling in the next four years may be a solution.
After all, in terms of political style, Lula is much more moderate than Bolsonaro, and he is more willing to beckon to right-wing politicians. For example, his deputy Geraldo Alckmin is the 2018 presidential candidate supported by the center right and the business community. people.
However, since Bolsonaro’s party is now the largest party in Brazil’s House of Representatives, people who hope that Brazilian politics can return to normal can only hope that Bolsonaro will not be like Trump in the future. Instead, he faded out of politics.
Can Lula, who came to power under the "battle between good and evil", resolve the confrontation between left and right in Brazil?
The World Cup four years later will probably tell us the answer.
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