Editorials

The Irish Times view on Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro: losing his legitimacy

A much-awaited senate report on the handling of the Covid crisis will call for charges against the president

Tens of thousands have taken to the streets demanding the impeachment of President Jair Bolsonaro. Photograph: Joedson Alves/ EPA

Sun Oct 17 2021 - 19:12

The pressures on Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro are mounting. On the streets, in parliament, and in both the domestic and international court systems, he faces almost daily demands to answer to claims of incompetence, collusion in massive corruption, the deadly promotion of fake Covid-19 cures, and support for the wholescale destruction of the Amazon rain forest.

Most seriously, critics say that Bolsonaro’s Trump-like Covid denialism and the reckless inaction of his government in the earliest stages of the pandemic have meant that some 480,000 of the 600,000 Brazilians who have lost their lives from the disease – the excess over world average figures – died unnecessarily.

Tens of thousands have taken to the streets demanding his impeachment. In parliament scores of impeachment requests have been filed against the president in his almost three years in office, though they have been blocked by a sympathetic house speaker. Four times activists have petitioned the International Criminal Court over the mass deforestation that they argue is a threat to the world.

Tomorrow a much-awaited, withering senate report on the handling of the Covid crisis will call for charges against the president in respect of as many as 11 offences, including crimes of responsibility, crimes against public health, and crimes against humanity. More than 40 government-linked politicians and officials should also face charges, the report argues. Any potential criminal charges would, however, have to be accepted by the attorney general and then approved by a majority of the lower House of Congress. Neither is expected; Bolsonaro enjoys many layers of protection while still in office.

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But the accumulation of accusations against him continue to undermine the political legitimacy of a president whose polling has sharply dipped. A recent survey reported 54 per cent of Brazilians rate him as “bad or terrible”, his worst standing yet. Re-election next year looks less and less likely.

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