Brazil: the challenge of popping a bubble

What happened on Sunday in Brasilia, when mobs assaulted the headquarters of the three branches of the State, is unheard of.

In the second meaning of this term, the

of the Royal Spanish Academy speaks of "surprising because it is unusual, scandalous or blameworthy".

That's how it went.

One of the sequences of what happened that have been seen on television is illustrative.

There appears a member of the Military Police, supposedly in charge of protecting the institutions, in the task of reviewing one of the protesters.

The man lifts his shirt, it seems that he is not wearing anything, so go ahead, you can come in.

As if the search, that incredible simulated search, were a simple procedure to ensure that nothing serious was going to happen a little further on, on the esplanade where the official buildings projected by Óscar Niemeyer in his day are located.

Unusual, scandalous, blameworthy.

It all started around one in the afternoon when supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, who had been camped out in front of the Army Headquarters for two months, asking the military to carry out a coup against the winner of the last elections, Lula da Silva, began the nine-day walk kilometers that was going to take them to the Plaza de los Tres Poderes.

They marched peacefully and were escorted by members of the security forces, as if they were going to a show, a religious celebration, an art and design fair or a fair for agricultural products or manga and comics.

In order to participate in the event, 150 buses had also arrived with people from other parts of Brazil.

They carried flags.

And mobile.

They took photos, recorded what caught their attention, chanted slogans.

Analyst Yascha Mounk has described what happened as a "grotesque carnival".

In another of the moments that have been seen on television, a protester explains that the Army betrayed them, still a bit perplexed that she had not intervened with her troops and her tanks and her planes.

The mobs kicked down the glass facades of the buildings, broke into the halls, hitting here and there, practicing a kind of "coup gymnastics": destroying everything they had at hand, stealing what could be useful, mocking power .

Senator Marcos do Val —a right-wing man, former soldier, instructor for elite police units—, who came after the assault to assist some of the 1,500 people who have been detained, referred in his reconstruction of the events to a a man who already within the Senate recently taken over by the radicals proclaimed himself president of the Republic.

As happened two years ago in Washington with the assault on the Capitol, the ultra-right has managed to mobilize this time in Brasilia thousands of enthusiasts who are convinced that an election has been stolen from them.

They are not shy, they believe in their cause, they are willing to take risks.

They don't give a damn what the institutions of the system say: with manifest pride they have turned their backs on them for a long time and are not permeable to any of their considerations, no matter how elaborate and rigorous they may be.

They live in a bubble.

And perhaps that is precisely one of the great challenges of democracy: pricking it.

When a common space is not shared, there are no useful rules of the game.

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