Bolsonaro's swan song that keeps the fire of the extreme right burning

At the worst moment of his political life, harassed by serious accusations of having prepared a coup d'état to annul Lula's victory and with one foot in prison, Bolsonaro wanted to risk it all by going to the streets calling on his faithful with his catechism in the hand of God, country, family and freedom.

Bolsonaro, as he himself stated, wanted to present to the country and the world “a photo” that would plastically reveal that his army of followers is still intact.

And he chose the scene of the great national demonstrations: the mythical avenue of São Paulo, which can hold up to a million people.

It was a high-risk gamble.

The Army has been co-opted by Lula, who has maintained all the privileges of the institution, the same ones he had received from Bolsonaro.

If the demonstration failed him, if it ended without a photo of a crowd cheering him, it would be his most unfortunate final.

Despite this, the former captain expelled from the Army wanted to take a risk.

He is a parachutist by profession and he jumped into the abyss without thinking as the last of his bravado before being imprisoned.

In order not to be called crazy by his people, he had anticipated that the São Paulo event would not be controversial and would defend freedom of expression and the Constitution.

And so he did it.

Even so he slipped several times and to defend that he had not instigated any military coup he said that he had always adhered to the letter of the Constitution which provides for a declaration of siege in exceptional situations.

Perhaps the greatest triumph of Bolsonaro and his risky bet in calling the demonstration can be summarized in three positive chapters for him: that it be discussed whether half a million people attended, remaining an average of the great demonstrations of the past that changed the course about politic.

The opposition was betting that, numerically, the demonstration would be a failure.

Second, that the hundreds of thousands attended the meeting, disciplined, without signs against the Government or against the Supreme Court, as he had asked them to do.

They obeyed him.

And thirdly, he was born right there and was almost consecrated as his possible successor, from a right that was not extremist or coup-mongering but was tough.

This is the current governor of the State of São Paulo, which with its 40 million inhabitants is equivalent to being president of Spain: Tarcísio Freitas.

He was a soldier, one of the few who spoke to the crowd and who confessed: “I was nobody.

Bolsonaro made me a minister and today I have become what I am.”

And he is, according to most political analysts, the 2026 presidential candidate.

Especially since Tarcísio represents not only the Bolsonaro extreme right, but the right as such, without the extremisms of his godfather.

Its importance today is so great that even Lula has already attempted an approach to it.

Both went to visit one of the devastated areas in São Paulo due to the rains, something that then caught the attention of even Lula's party, the PT, and the entire left.

And Lula already sensed then, with his political sense, that Tarcísio was emerging as a possible successor to Bolsonaro, but without being a coup leader.

And along with Tarcísio Freitas, the other protagonist and even material organizer of the demonstration was the powerful Silas Malafaia, evangelical pastor of one of the most powerful evangelical churches and one of the richest businessmen in the country.

Everything that Bolsonaro did not want, nor could he say during the demonstration, such as a frontal attack on the Supreme Court, was said openly by the powerful evangelical pastor, convinced that they would not have the courage to stop him.

What cannot be ignored when talking about Bolsonaro's coup-mongering extreme right is that it continues to have millions of disciplined evangelicals and businessmen still loyal to him, convinced that the left is persecuting its leader Bolsonaro for defending traditional family values. , of God and of the country.

And when we talk about God and the Bible in relation to evangelicals, we are referring to the Old Testament, that of revenge and wars, that of the theology of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” not the one that blesses the peaceful and demands forgiveness from enemies.

A word resonated pregnant with meaning in the demonstration promoted by Bolsonaro and that acquired importance.

It was when Bolsonaro asked for “amnesty” for all those still imprisoned and who are being tried accused of having participated in the vandalism of the headquarters of the three powers in Brasilia, destroying an entire national artistic heritage in a clearly coup-like gesture.

In reality, Bolsonaro, who knows that sooner or later jail awaits him, by asking for said amnesty for his people who are already being tried, was subliminally asking for said amnesty for himself, in exchange for stopping accusing democratic institutions, of attacking to the Constitution and to continue with their longing for a new military and undemocratic regime.

Now it is up to Lula's Government to analyze the Bolsonarist feat and decide if the best thing is to act to stop this Bolsonarism that is still alive and dividing the country, judging and imprisoning the leader or letting the dark clouds of intimidation of the extreme right dissipate, with the danger that it could re-emerge like a phoenix that was believed to be dead, but that the massive demonstration has revealed that it refuses to die.

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