Explaining Brazil #276: A year after Jan. 8, polarization shows signs of no abating

Brazil has just celebrated the one-year anniversary of the January 8 riots, in which hordes of radicalized far-right supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed and ransacked the presidential palace, Congress, and the Supreme Court building. Those events epitomized the massive levels of political polarization Brazil has seen.

Protesting unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud, these extremists launched a desperate attempt to prevent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who had taken office just a week earlier, from governing — by setting the stage for the military to step in and restore Mr. Bolsonaro to power.

The riots were proof of how polarized Brazilian society was.

One year later, it might be even more polarized — so two experts believe.

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In this episode:

• Thomas Traumann is a political analyst and author. He served as presidential spokesperson and social communication minister under the Dilma Rousseff administration.

Background reading:

• One year after the attack on democracy, the institutions are celebrating their swift response to putschism. But reforms of the Armed Forces and the regulation of social media were left in tatters, and Brazilian society remains divided.
• Back in January 2023, we said that unifying Brazil would be Lula’s biggest challenge in office. So far, he has failed to do so.
• The Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva administration launched a project to create a Museum of Democracy. A digital repository with an exhibit focused on the January 8 riots is already available.
• Almost nothing seems to move Brazilian voters from their preconceptions — a clear indication of the calcification of Brazilian politics (which is worse than polarization). A recent poll has flagged that process: 90 percent of voters who picked either Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva or Jair Bolsonaro in the 2022 presidential election do not regret their choice.

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