The downfall of Bolonarian icon Ernesto Araújo do Itamaraty is viewed with caution by more experienced active diplomats, who believe that the group’s principles will continue to dictate the direction of Brazilian foreign policy.
The reason is that the new chancellor, Carlos Alberto França, had his appointment approved directly by the real leader of the group: the deputy and presidential son Eduardo Bolsonaro and the international affairs adviser to the presidency, Filipe Martins.
França is not a classic olavista, to remain in the qualification given to the intellectual guru of the Bolsonarista group, Olavo de Carvalho. There is no news that he agrees with the exotic ideas associated with the writer.
He worked in the same environment, Bolsonaro’s personal office, which Filipe Martins – called in Sorocabannon diplomatic circles, a pejorative way of associating his origin inside São Paulo with his connection to Steve Bannon, the chief ideologue of the American populist right.
France had arrived there on the recommendation of Ernesto, of whom he does not however seem to be a close friend.
A low-ranking diplomat who has never commanded an embassy, France is considered an extremely polite and qualified person. In other words, the opposite of the majority opinion on Ernesto.
Folha has not found the new chancellor, who will be invited on Wednesday (31) to make a statement before the hemicycle’s foreign affairs committee.
An opposition senator said it was necessary to take the time to see the real impact of the Bolonarist influence on France. He remembers the obvious: the president wouldn’t choose someone who thinks the opposite of him, but he can change the tone.
In the report, four old guard ambassadors, all sent to secondary posts by association with past governments, which Bolsonaro said implies political alignment, assessed France’s choice.
For them, unanimously, to have a less expressive profile and to be already at the Planalto Palace, France was anointed to fulfill a mission. He would not have the political density to say no and not suffer the consequences, and he is relatively young (56 years old).
Thus, France cannot repeat in public the nonsense of Ernesto, who has posed as an enemy of China, Brazil’s biggest trading partner.
But neither is a wooden horse in the general direction of foreign policy, which is still groping after Donald Trump, an idol of the Bolonarian gang, failed to re-elect himself president, is not expected. the United States.
If Brazil participates in the climate summit sponsored by Trump’s successor, Joe Biden, it will be more a question of continuity in proximity to the United States than of joining the Democratic Party of the new leader.
And China had imposed itself on the Brazilian agenda by gravity, because of the dependence that the two vaccines formulated in Brazil have on inputs from the Asian country.
One of the ambassadors felt that the Itamaraty will find it very difficult to shed Ernesto’s legacy, even if France is being proactive in some way.
The problem is that, since this is a long career, there is always the fear of falling into ostracism, especially since there is a possibility that the Jair Bolsonaro government will be re-elected in 2022. Thus, there may be pragmatism by diplomats of the younger generations, despite widespread disgust with Olavism.