Supporting the impeachment of a president directly responsible for thousands of deaths during a pandemic is a moral imperative that takes precedence over institutional, partisan and electoral considerations. However, this instrument may be insufficient for the political dispute against a president with the characteristics of Bolsonaro, whose actions reverberate throughout the international community.
Impeachment is by nature an endogenous process, difficult to read for foreign observers, who need to delve into the intricacies of Brazilian law and decipher the ironies of the members of the ICC in order to understand the consequences. The return of the impeachment campaign after the controversy, and so far poorly understood, the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff also reinforces the impression that the national political crisis comes down to a repetition of presidential failures.
But the dynamic of the campaign against Bolsonaro is unique because of the climate issue. As recently as last week, the Financial Times in its editorial demanded punishment for environmental crimes perpetrated by its government, and the Guardian warned of a paradigm shift in the dynamics of carbon emissions from the Amazon rainforest. . Stimulated by the trauma of the floods in Belgium and Germany, the European Union will increase the pressure against the Brazilian government, and the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil formalizes a new denunciation against Bolsonaro in The Hague. The impeachment debate provincializes Brazilian politics, when it has never been so globalized.
While the impeachment campaign is expected to run out of steam ahead of the elections, the international campaign to protect the Amazon is expected to take on an unprecedented dimension in the coming months, fueled by the Bolsonaro government’s insistence on moving forward. forward with the dismantling of environmental policy, due to phenomena such as fires, and diplomatic events such as COP26.
In this context, spending a lot of time speculating on the impact of the sentiments of the Alagoas political class on Artur Lira’s decisions, or analyzing the obscure maneuvers of the attorney general’s office, is the best way to under- harness the potential of Brazilian civil society. To insist on this strategy is to lose the opportunity to show the world that Brazil has the leadership, the instruments and the technologies necessary to reverse the situation in the Amazon. It is also missing the last chance before the presidential elections to link the mass death of Brazilians to the devastation of the forest, and the struggle for democracy to the climate emergency.
Bolsonaro has the unwitting merit of, through his criminal attitude, placing the environment at the center of Brazilian international relations. In the midst of the climate revolution, the time has perhaps come to bet even more on the internationalization of the fight against your government. Its withdrawal should always be required. But we must not forget that abroad, the world does not revolve around impeachment.
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