Would be Brazilian politics a satire of House of Cards?
If you dare to open a Brazilian newspaper, you will face at least four reports which seem to come straight from a comic series. The political scenery is full of non-sense discussion, weird decisions and freakish pronouncements. The reality in Brazil is getting worse, and the future is unpredictable.
Yesterday, 1th February, the Brazilian Congress started to vote for a new speaker of the 1st and 2nd chamber — Lower House and Senate. In the 2nd Chamber, everything occured as expected, Rodrigo Maia, DEM (centre-right), was the congressman most quoted for the position and he was elected for the third time in a row. Maia is involved in corruption schemes and money laundering, showing us that the expected political new age, was, in fact, a recall of the previous seasons.
The spotlight of this week was on Senate, where again scenes too tragic to be funny happened. The congressman Renan Calheiros (MDB), under investigation since 2007 for uncountable political scandals, was the name quoted to be the 1st Chamber speaker. Calheiros started his political career in 1982 and, since then, he always formed a coalition with the Congress majority. Even with this fantastic CV, Renan was the favourite in the running for 1nd Chamber’s president, but Brazilian politics is not that easy.
When the session started, David Alcolumbre (DEM) declared himself president of the assembly and opened a new vote to decide if the session would be secret or not. Renan and his allies tried to stop the meeting claiming that Alcolumbre was a candidate, so he could not be the president of the session.
The dramatic situation extended for a couple of hours, and the sound inside the Chamber was Calheiros screaming “Canalha, Canalha” — Jackass, Jackass — during the vote. The acting president decided that it would be an open vote, what would be terrible for Calheiros, due to the fact that none of the congressmen wanted to have their names connected to Renan. The big star of the night was the congresswoman Katia Abreu (PDT), who suddenly stole the folder whit the vote accounting and left the House.
The sound inside the Chamber was Calheiros screaming “Canalha, Canalha” — Jackass, Jackass — during the vote.
If we add some laughter in the background and a soundtrack that would be the perfect script for a cliché comedy. The non-organized — we can say crazy — political decisions are not only an exclusivity for the Congress. In Bolsonaro’s government drama and craziness are almost a mandatory requirement.
The house of craziness
To enumerate a few stumbles, we can quote the Navy head chef who declared that Brazil fought in 3 World Wars: and the education ministry who wrote a note full of grammatical mistakes and conspiracy about communism and Brazilian media. Even though it is a hard competition, there is one character who deserves a spotlight.
Last week, Dutch people had their first contact with a public figure well known in Brazil, the minister Damares Alves. The newspaper Telegraaf reported a video where Damaris declared that Dutch people masturbate 7-months-old babes.
It’s hard to believe that someone with a high position in Brazilian’s politic could make this statement, but the truth is that was just one of Damares freakish pronouncements. The minister runs a newly created Ministry which will oversee women, family and human rights. She is extremely conservative and fundamentalist, during her whole life she fought against feminism, abortion and protected the conservative agenda.
The politic — who’s also pastor, in 2006, asserted that: “It is time for the church to tell the nation that we have come … It is time for the church to govern.”. In 2013, she said that tourist goes to farm hotels to have sex with animals. In her most recently polemic she declared that she has master degree and graduation in constitutional law and family rights. When she was questioned about it she affirmed that it was a biblical Master degree, given by God.
It’s clear that Damares' strategic role in Bolsonaro’s government is bringing polemic controversies, which gave her a “crazy” status. However, the accusations against the minister are not more about her eloquent speech anymore, this week it became a criminal issue.
In 31st January, Época magazine published the preview of a report about Damares and her nongovernmental organisation. Época’s preview brought a few testimonies accusing Damares of stealing a 6-year-old girl and adopting her without her family’s consent.
The Agency for Law Enforcement and Prosecution of Crimes started the investigation against Damares organisation in December. Her NGO works with natives, and it is investigated for involvement with kidnaping and traffic of native children. Alves adoptive child it’s member of the Kamayurá tribe .
It is essential to remember that Damares Ministry is responsible for taking care of the 900 thousand natives who live in Brazil.
