Who is the man claimed to be the new Trump?

As soon as Donald Trump won, Brazilian politician and current candidate for the presidency, Jair Bolsonaro, prompted to establish the similarities between them both — from then on, his presidential campaign demonstrates a clear focus: the engagement to the lack of common sense.

The truth is, Bolsonaro has never been the most reasonable person: the former military defends the dictatorship and questions the veracity of the tortures and murders committed by militaries (amid the voting for Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment, he hailed the man who tortured her); insulted women in the parliament during official commitment (“you do not deserve me to rape you”, he proudly yelled in two different occasions); questioned by a reporter about the use of the housing assistance money he improperly received for many years as a congressman he answered it was used to “fuck people”; most recently, he blamed the African for the slavery in Brazil (“the Portuguese did not even step on Africa”). In social media and live television he spreads false informations — as the supposed distribution of a “Gay Kit” for children in public schools — in order to cause commotion and hatred.

His voters, outraged by the country’s current situation (something as the loss of “traditional values” propagated by a “communist invasion”), claim for the “new” — just as Trump’s voters must have done. But while Trump was a political outsider, there is nothing new about Bolsonaro. On the contrary, he has always treated politics as his family business. He has been a politician for 30 years — in the last 28 years as a congressman in Brasilia he only had two bills and one amendment approved (one of the bills authorizes the selling of phosphorylethanolamine, known in Brazil as the ‘cancer pill’ which efficacy was never proved). Three of his sons, Flavio, Carlos and Eduardo, are also active politicians; they frequently use social media to endorse their father’s speeches.

“Brazil above everything. God above all.” is the official motto of his campaign. His government plan available in his official website has biblical references and warnings against the leftists/communists/marxists/gramscists. He proposes a decent government, “different from everything else”, and claims to “give Brazil back to its truly owners: the Brazilians”. Among the solutions for criminality, three stand out: firearms to the ‘good’ people; to arrest and never release; legal protection to the police guaranteed by the Government.

A page of Jair Bolsonaro’s government plan available at his official website, in which he insinuates there are communists commanding the country

Some people believe that, if elected, Bolsonaro will face strong opposition in the Congress. However the reality may be quite different. There are groups in the Congress called protestants and ruralists, both have had strong performances during the last 4 years and if they did not have their rulings approved, they were at least able to delay and hinder many of their opponents’ plans — as last year, when the voting for the extension of maternity leave for mothers of premature babies was delayed until the following year, because deputies from the protestant group insisted in adding to the amendment the “right to life”, in other words, the prohibition of the abortion in all cases including the ones in which the abortion is currently legal, i.e.: pregnancy preceded by rape; high risk to the mother’s life; anencephalic fetus. Those groups are most likely to figure as Bolsonaro’s allies.

Trump has always been controversial, and after all he won. Therefore, the Brazilian candidate takes advantage of the comparisons between them both, what is unceasingly replicated in the headlines where he is called “the Trump of the Tropics”. There is no better propaganda for a man who is not able to formulate two coherent sentences in a debate and has a despicable political career.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade