The birth of a sad clown: the day Brazil faced its Congress
Brasília, April 17, Sunday evening. In a Catholic nation with a growing neo-Pentecostal population, it was generally the time to worship. That day, however, the prayers and praises to the Lord echoed far from churches and temples: they were heard from the National Congress tribune, broadcasted nationwide.
It happened during the Congress’ special session that onset the impeachment process of President Dilma Rousseff. In the supposedly “house of secularism”, Congressmen and women did not hesitate to glorify their Gods and families, while dedicating their pro-impeachment-process vote to their faith, wives and children. Meanwhile, a politically polarized Brazil gathered in bars, homes, beaches or public parks to cheer — as if it was a World Cup match — for or against Rousseff. In that unique day in the Brazilian History, four episodes stand out.
Firstly, a Congresswoman’s adulation that invoked her allegedly unblemished husband whose local administration of a town in Minas Gerais would provide unparalleled example of righteousness for the nation’s politicians. By Monday morning, the police arrested the idolized husband for the embezzlement of a local public hospital whose funds were otherwise employed into their family’s private health establishment.
Secondly, a lady of pleasure jumped into the opportunity to have her 15 minutes of fame, and newspapers published at least four Congressmen’s texts apologizing for dedicating their vote to their wives, whilst reaffirming their hearts actually belonged to her.
Thirdly, a former military official notorious for his explicit homophobic, misogynous and racist opinions and main representative of the extreme-right wing in Brazil’s partisan spectrum, Congressman Jair Bolsonaro honored his authoritarian fame while declaring his pro-impeachment vote. Unlike the other alleged loving husbands and wives, Bolsonaro praised an already deceased military, Colonel Brilhante Ulstra. Ultra is identified as one of the main torture agents during the Brazilian dictatorship (1964–1985). To make matters of intense obscurity, Ulstra was one of the men who, back in the 1970s, single-handedly tortured Dilma when she was a guerrilla fighter arrested in a military facility. Not only a personal assault on Dilma, Bolsonaro’s vote represented an open defense of the “dirty war” and its abhorrence legacy.
Among the 367 Congressmen who voted for the impeachment process, only sixteen mentioned the alleged crime of responsibility the President would have committed. This amounts to 4,6% of the pro-impeachment voters, and solely to 3,1% of all voting representatives in the lower house.
All said, Congressman Tiririca might provide the most striking illustration of what the impeachment process represents to Brazilian politics in the aftermath of a deep structural revamp in the country’s social and economic landscape following especially the two administrations under Lula. Francisco Everardo Oliveira first gained the spotlight in the nineties as a Northeastern clown whose tacky song Florentina conquered the nation’s sense of humor. Born in Ceará, Tiririca, enjoyed a strike of success, when in the minds of the Southeastern elite epitomized the Northeastern, a poor, uneducated, idiotic person: a twenty-first-century joker.
In 2010, facing a looming turn in his career as a clown/singer, Tiririca sought to once again epitomize Brazilians’ perceptions. This time, he would represent the discredit toward national institutions running for Congressman in the lower house under such slogans as “Pior que tá não fica, vote Tiririca” (vote for Tiririca, it does not get worse than it already is). Through a strategy that enticed the public to play a prank over Brazil’s political institutions, the clown was elected with the most votes before all other candidates in the country.
During his first tenure, he was among the representatives who were least absent from sessions, but before he even took office, a national weekly publication raised suspicion over his literacy, when he confessed he hadn’t complied with electoral legislation, and his wife would have helped him hand-write his degree declaration. Following poignant support from left wing movements, who would not accept an elected Northeastern lost his political rights over elitist accusations, Tiririca was granted a literacy test.
Succeeding the exam, the former clown’s inauguration speech highlighted his commitment to culture, education, to the defense of the professionals of circus, as well as to gypsies. Thusly, even though affiliated to a rather conservative party, Tiririca counted with the support of the Left to take office.
During the week preceding the ominous Congressional session, parties, the media and leaders reached out to him, willing to guarantee his vote pro or against the impeachment process. He, in his turn, would not reveal his position until he first spoke in the microphone of the lower house. If, on the one hand, the acceptance of his election was substantially related to a political landscape in which a former proletariat had been elected President, and social movements stood up for his political rights, his constituency was rather conservative, and so were the colleagues that had never even approached him. The prejudice he encountered in Brasília day after day, which had been making him personally suffer, was to leverage his decision.
On that Sunday, Francisco Everardo Oliveira claimed his voice, not as Tiririca, but as a lonely human being seeking out recognition by what then appeared to be the mainstream, the traditional, the safe haven of the road well traveled. Right after voting for the impeachment process, Francisco Everardo fell into his colleagues’ arms, when they enthusiastically greeted and welcomed him into their clique.
A wise observer notwithstanding could witness nothing but the birth of a sad clown in a grotesque circus: the realization of a self-fulfilling prophecy that has long described Brazilian politics. From an idiotic clown, passing by an insecure Francisco Everardo, Tiririca is the former slave who had slaves of his own, a mulatto who has never been actually welcomed among the elite. Euphoria is hardly capable of hiding its constitutive binary. Deep sadness was born alongside with a clown who has now lost the support of the association of the professionals of circus, and could not be further from taking part in key negotiations that lead to voting sessions in the lower house; he’s back to being a number in the voting chart.
The loving husbands, the supportive Congresswoman, the former military keen on torture, as well as the sad clown were merely four of the characters in a spectacle that made the entire Nation choke. Perhaps for the first time in their lives, Brazilians were face-to-face with their representatives in action, and the picture was bizarre.
After all, even pro-impeachment supporters were left with nothing but bitterness in their mouths, a silence that does not even compare to that of the 7–1. Presided over by a Congressman juridically and mediatically recognized as corrupt, the circus of horrors unveiled the rough reality of the Brazilian political system. Then, each of one the Brazilian citizens got caught up in a stalemate.
If one legitimizes the session’s outcome by recognizing themselves in the faces, gestures, and attitudes of most of those Congressmen and women, the image on the other side of the mirror is far from flattering. Otherwise, pro or against the impeachment, if one regretted the absurdity of content and form broadcasted live on TV and Internet, representative democracy was to be accepted deeply flawed. No matter how bright the sun shines over Brasília, every past Sunday demonstration under a National football-team dress code proved that beyond traditional politics, much more is demanded from our political imagination.
Thiago Rodrigues — Professor at the Institute of Strategic Studies, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil trodrigues@id.uff.br
Mariana Kalil — MSc, PhD Candidate at the Institute of International Relations (IRel), Universidade de Brasília (UnB), Brazil marianakalil@gmail.com
