We republish below an unofficial translation of the following article from the Brazilian New Democratic newspaper A Nova Democracia, originally published on November 11, 2024.
The election of Donald Trump, almost four years after the invasion of the Capitol on January 6, is symptomatic of the degree of decomposition of “American democracy” – which, with the United States being the sole hegemonic superpower, reflects and condenses the general crisis of decomposition of the entire old imperialist order, especially its much-vaunted “universal democracy”. When the most powerful sectors of Yankee imperialism allow a loudmouth, who has affronted them all, like Trump, to run for and win the elections, it is indeed a sign of the exhaustion of the legitimacy of the political regime. A slow and steady end to the old bourgeois democracy, that unburied corpse, from whose terminal fever emerge figures like Trump, or Bolsonaro, and so many others who swarm in the governments of the Old World, paving the way for fascism. There is no doubt that they must be fought relentlessly; but, in view of this, what can we say about Luiz Inácio’s statement that Trump was elected “by the voice of the people” at the polls? No comments needed…
The fact is that, on the domestic front, Luiz Inácio knows very well that Trump’s election will redouble the burden on his government; there is no doubt that, in the next two years, the current government of US imperialism will do everything to ensure that, in 2026, the right-wing takes over the Palácio da Alvorada; but not just any right-wing, but the extreme right-wing Bolsonaro supporters. Perhaps, Bolsonaro himself. Why not? Luiz Inácio’s effusive greetings to Trump will not be enough to receive mercy from him.
To give one example, Trump has already guaranteed that he will put “maximum pressure” on the Venezuelan issue and that he counts on Luiz Inácio’s support for this – which, if such a miserable act of cowardice occurs (his veto of Venezuela’s entry into BRICS is a harbinger), will tend to further diminish the popularity of the Brazilian leader, who has completely unmasked himself in his already discredited anti-imperialist rhetoric. If this is not done, the implementation of the policy dictated by the IMF, which opportunism follows, with one disguise or another, and which is already a permanent crisis, with the pressures and boycott of the Trump government, will produce a leap in the crisis of the country’s bureaucratic capitalism. In other words, this situation will be the terrain with more than enough advantages for the opposition to win the 2026 elections.
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Conversely, the leader of the Brazilian far right, Jair Bolsonaro, came out on top. In an interview with the newspaper Folha de São Paulo, Bolsonaro described Trump’s election as “a very important step”, saying that he expects a “huge (Bolsonaro) bench in the Senate” in 2026 and that “the amnesty (itself) has a specific deadline to make certain decisions”. He concluded everything with the promise of “(Michel) Temer (MDB) as vice president”. Even before Trump’s victory, Bolsonaro was already making plans for 2026 in Brazil, with a tactical union with the traditional right (largely grouped under the umbrella of Bolsonarism, and in conflict with the Supreme Court) and the advancement of projects such as the PEC of Amnesty for the coup plotters, which, if it fulfills its objective of politically demoralizing Bolsonaro’s case, could free the former president from ineligibility, especially since, in 2026, the TSE will be in the hands of the Supreme Court justice appointed by Bolsonaro, Kassio Nunes Marques. There is no doubt that Bolsonaro’s optimism is justified, and there is also no doubt that this situation was produced with a great contribution from his own opportunism (Luiz Inácio & co.) cowardly in appeasing the coup-plotting generals and submissive to the tutelage of the Armed Forces.
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On the other side of the world, Hitler-wannabe Benjamin Netanyahu is already starting to get frustrated. Since the campaign, he had received the directive from Trump: “end the war” before the end of the year. Of course, this is the political death of Netanyahu, who will resist; but Trump and the part of the establishment that accompanies him know, and are convinced, of the need to focus on the Pacific, to suffocate China, in the dispute for hegemony in the region.
While Netanyahu, who seeks to use the war to prolong his time at the head of the Zionist regime, in coalition with the most extreme sector of Zionism (religious Zionism), may be displeased with Trump’s preference, the sector of “traditional Zionism”, led by a large part of the high echelons of the Zionist Army and sectors of the Shin Bet intelligence, will tend to use the new scenario to force Netanyahu to sign the ceasefire. The crisis that has opened up in Israel on the eve of the US election results, following the breaking of a silence order by a military investigation into Netanyahu’s office – which included a police raid on the Zionist prime minister’s office and the prime minister’s dismissal of Yoav Gallant, a trusted man in the army, in response to the offensive – are expressions of the reactionary conflict underway in the occupied territory.
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There is no other path for the masses in this scenario than to radicalize the struggle for their rights. At the national level, the tendency to credit an improvement in the situation through institutional, electoral, and parliamentary means, through a “reformism” that is as timid as it is false, is running out in days. The first two years of the PT’s coalition government with the traditional right wing that surrounds and controls it, already very bad, are nothing compared to the next two years that are yet to come. To survive in government – which is Luiz Inácio’s only goal – it will be necessary to move much further to the right. It will be very difficult for Luiz Inácio to make the masses fall for this game, which serves to keep them subordinated to the reactionary dispute. On the contrary, we can foresee a growing and more violent popular protest, because, in dark and crisis-ridden times like these, not only is it true that those who fight more lose less, but more than that, the successive defeats that this ultra-reactionary Congress will impose on the people, as well as the inevitable fascist threat, will push the masses fighting for their immediate interests to the trenches of defense of democratic freedoms.
