Bolsonaro was warned that the act could flop, but insisted he was capable of “moving crowds”

No ally of former president Jair Bolsonaro admits it in public, but the demonstration last Sunday (21), in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, was, in fact, a fiasco. The word that circulated most on the networks in the days that followed was “flopped”.

No matter how much they try to disguise it, the small audience present at the event was undeniable. And here comes the flood of explanations, undisguised theories of failure. Valdemar Costa Netothe president of PL, Bolsonaro’s party, blamed the time, at 10 am, on the hot day and, amazingly, he also said that it wouldn’t be possible to compete with “such a beach”.

According to the research group “Political debate monitor“, from the USP School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities (EACH), coordinated by Pablo Ortellado and Márcio Moretto, the event brought together 32.7 thousand people. An audience 18% smaller than the one that was in São Paulo, in February, and half of those present on September 7, 2022.

The fear of failure, according to column by Bela Megale, on Globo, was debated among the organizers. Bolsonaro himself, however, was convinced of his ability to “move crowds”.

The order within Bolsonaro’s party and supporters is to minimize the lack of public.

“Making this country work”

Although several opposition politicians celebrated the fiasco, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva himself anticipated the issue during his meeting with journalists last Tuesday (23), and was accurate:

“Someone will ask me, I’ll immediately say, ‘president, what do you think of the act in Copacabana?’ I didn’t see the act because I was photographing the My home, my life of the clay joes. I discovered it in Alvorada Palace four houses of joões-de-barro and decided to make a film to publish on the internet. I am not concerned about the actions of fascists. What matters to me is this: I’m going to make this country work”, said Lula.

Lula’s irony was spot on and provoked a reaction, among others, from the folkloric far-right deputy Nikolas Ferreira (PL), known as “Pacifier”. After standing out in Sunday’s act by revealing that “looking for males with testosterone“, he gave another one of his shows. With his voice choked and somewhat frozen, the parliamentarian from Minas Gerais “cried” in the Chamber plenary, to everyone’s embarrassment.

“Lula refers to the people who were demonstrating in a peaceful, orderly and democratic way as ‘fascists’ […] he labels his opponents to create narratives, but I want to say something to Lula and the left: narratives are dangerous”, cried Nikolas Ferreira.

Bolsonaro’s excuses aside, it’s too early for government celebrations. The only and right reaction is Lula’s, that is, to make the country work. Pardon the cliché, the bitch of fascism remains as it always has been, in heat. Government slippages, especially in the economy, and the Bolsonarist rallies are booming again.