Prominent figures from across Brazil’s political spectrum have a published a high-profile manifesto calling for a united front to protect Brazilian democracy and lives amid growing alarm over president Jair Bolsonaro’s authoritarian outbursts and shambolic response to coronavirus.
The Movimento Estamos Juntos (We’re In This Together Movement) was launched on Saturday as Brazil overtook France to become the country with the fourth highest official death toll. About a thousand coronavirus deaths are being confirmed each day as Latin America’s biggest economy cements itself as a major focus of the pandemic.
“The choice is between democracy and barbarity … It is our country’s future that’s at stake,” tweeted Marcelo Freixo, a leftwing congressman, as he endorsed the movement’s creation alongside leading lights of Brazilian academia, culture and politics.
Flávio Dino, another prominent leftist who has also joined, said Brazil’s very democracy was at risk if Bolsonaro’s tens of millions of opponents were unable to unite. “Bolsonaro sometimes comes across as a caricature, something comical. But he’s dangerous – he and the followers of this fanatical far-right sect are dangerous.”
Dino said the new movement was inspired by Diretas Já – a historic pro-democracy campaign that helped end two decades of military rule in the 1980s.
“Just as there was this broad coalition to defeat the dictatorship we believe we must now build a broad coalition to avoid a new dictatorship,” Dino said.
Lobão, a rightwing rockstar, said he had signed up out of disgust at the “genocidal fiasco” caused by Bolsonaro’s response to coronavirus. “We cannot allow this mockery and this utter negligence towards public health to continue,” said the musician, who voted for Bolsonaro in 2018 before regretting his choice.
The movement’s foundation came as a record 33,274 new coronavirus cases pushed Brazil’s total to nearly 500,000. Only the US has more. Nearly 29,000 Brazilians have died since the first death was confirmed in mid-March, meaning only the US, the UK and Italy have lost more lives.
Despite this, Bolsonaro continues to flout social distancing and has failed to appoint a permanent health minister after two were forced out in under a month. On Sunday he paraded through the capital, Brasília, on horseback, and without a mask during an anti-democracy protest by hardline devotees.
The rightwing populist has further stoked tensions by attending a succession of anti-democratic protests where demonstrators have called for congress and the supreme court to be closed or even torched.
Last week, after police raided the homes and offices of several key Bolsonaro supporters, the president appeared outside his residence in a tie adorned with images of assault rifles. “This is fucking over,” Bolsonaro bellowed. His politician son, Eduardo, warned Brazil was approaching “a moment of rupture”.
The manifesto – which urges Brazilians to mobilise in defence of “life, freedom and democracy” – received support from an unusually broad church, reflecting the growing anti-Bolsonaro revolt.
Its more than 100,000 signatories include the former centre-right president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Felipe Neto, a YouTube celebrity with 38 million followers, and some of Brazil’s top actors including Fernanda Montenegro, Taís Araújo and Lazaro Ramos.
Polls suggest Bolsonaro still enjoys the backing of 30% of Brazilians but has lost millions of voters in recent weeks. Such support would only re-elect Bolsonaro if his opponents remain divided.
Dino, the governor of Maranhão state, urged the left, right and centre to join forces to ensure democracy survived until Bolsonaro could be voted out at the next presidential election in 2022.
“We will not allow this landscape of horrors to repeat itself. This extremism will be defeated in 2022,” Dino vowed. “But our challenge is to make it that far – and that’s what most worries me. If there are free elections, I’ve no doubt Bolsonarista extremism will lose.”