Why millions of Brazilians took to the streets to defend democracy

The protests took place amid concerns that Brazilian President Lula da Silva is establishing authoritarian rule, based on radical socialism and the suppression of individual rights.

BY AUGUSTO ZIMMERMANN for The Epoch Times, March 7, 2024

Source : https://www.epochtimes.fr/pourquoi-des-millions-de-bresiliens-sont-descendus-dans-la-rue-pour-defendre-la-democratie-2560353.html

Millions of Brazilians took to the streets of São Paulo and other capitals on February 25 to defend democracy and human rights.

The protests took place amid concerns that Brazilian President Lula da Silva is establishing authoritarian rule, based on radical socialism and the suppression of individual rights.

The Brazilian government currently censors social media, and these pro-democracy protests are not publicized – not even by the local press.

Even foreign journalists who try to report on these protests are also severely punished.

For example, Portuguese journalist Sergio Tavares was arrested on February 25 at São Paulo airport. The federal police withdrew his passport for coming to advertise the demonstration.

He revealed that he was then questioned about his statements regarding election fraud, judicial activism, January 8 and vaccines.

There is a history

Lula's electoral victory in November 2022 was confirmed by highly politicized electoral judges. The problem, however, is that millions of Brazilians simply do not believe that Lula could have been elected according to standard democratic procedures.

Of course, it was an unexpected comeback for a notoriously corrupt politician, an unpopular former president directly responsible for the largest series of corruption scandals in the country's history.

Lula was sentenced to 12 years and one month in prison for widespread corruption and money laundering. However, he only spent a year and a half in prison because, in 2021, a Supreme Court judge overturned all of these convictions on purely technical grounds.

The Court did not say a word about Lula's guilt, demonstrated in three court decisions, before nine judges, and in a series of criminal proceedings during which numerous witnesses confessed, agreements were reached within the framework of plea negotiations, and stolen money was even returned.

Instead, the Court simply declared that the former president should not have been prosecuted in the city of Curitiba, but rather in Brasilia, thus restoring Lula's political rights that allowed him to run for office. presidential election this year.

In 2002, Lula told the French newspaper Le Monde that he "firmly believes that every election is a farce and a simple step to take power."

In another interview with Argentina's main newspaper, La Nación , Lula said: “We must give the impression that we are democrats, at first; we have to accept certain things. But it won’t last.”

Knowing this, it would not be unreasonable to question the presidential election.

Fair and transparent

Lula's opponent Jair Bolsonaro, who sought re-election in 2022, relied on the messaging app Telegram to reach his electoral base. However, on March 18, 2022, the Federal Supreme Court ordered the nationwide suspension of this application.

The social media Rumble is also banned in Brazil to defend freedom of expression.

In part because unelected judges, including those charged with overseeing the recent presidential election, ostensibly played a political role outside the judicial function, millions of Brazilians have good reason to question the reliability and integrity of the judicial system. transparency of the electoral system.

Aren’t we supposed to believe that elections should be fair and transparent? But is there any reason to believe that these elections were?

Today, millions of Brazilians are demonstrating not only against the alleged lack of electoral transparency, but also against the installation of a left-wing regime.

These concerned Brazilians took to the streets of major capitals to protest against a president whose election was controversial and who would now use the justice system to persecute and arrest all his political dissidents.