2017 is the key year for the future of democracy in Brazil.

Among many others, there are two contradictory movements in Brazilian society, both very impetuous. One, the Lava Jato operation, spares no means to advance the process of criminalizing politics and devastating Brazilian public assets. The two run in tandem because, without the shielding provided by the coup and the regime of exception it established, it will be impossible to continue the process of reducing Brazil to the dimensions of the market, the minimal state, and external subservience.

The other movement has former president Lula as its central figure, and it concerns direct elections and the restoration of democracy in Brazil.

The two camps have coexisted in a contradictory manner, with constant skirmishes between them, projecting a frontal confrontation from which only one can emerge victorious. One represents the destruction of the rule of law, the tutelage over the political life of members of the Judiciary with the direct objective of removing Lula from political life and destroying Brazil's economic potential. Lula, in turn, represents the great possibility of resuming democracy and this potential threatened by the predatory and combined action of members of the judiciary, the coup government, and the media.

Democracy and dictatorship cannot coexist permanently. They are two antagonistic logics, one representing restricted elites and the other the vast majority of the population. Brazil is currently in a process of transition from democracy, broken by the coup, to a regime of exception, a dictatorship. To consolidate itself, this regime needs to shield the political system, because any democratic consultation with the people will lead to the end of the regime installed by the coup and the return of the people's right to freely decide the president of the country. Lula is the major obstacle to shielding the dictatorial regime.

In the logic of a regime of exception, the aim is to condemn Lula, even without evidence, in an arbitrary and absurd, partisan way, as Lava Jato does, in both instances, wanting to remove the most important political leader in Brazilian history, the best president the country has ever had, whom the people want back in the presidency, from the electoral race. It would be a victory for arbitrariness, for the arbitrary judicialization of politics, for the project of financial capital here and of American imperialism, to dismantle Brazil as a power, as an emerging economy, as a model for fighting poverty in the world.

In the logic of democracy, it is about recovering the inalienable right of the people to decide, through direct vote, the government that should lead the country. It is about recovering the economic development model with income distribution, protecting the State from its current dilapidation, restoring its capacity to manage the economy and guarantee the social rights of the mass of the population, the jobs of workers, and the sovereignty and external dignity of Brazil.

One is the logic of financial capital, of speculative gains at the expense of the country's productive dismantling, unemployment, and social exclusion. The other is the logic of production and income distribution, of job security and social inclusion. One is the logic of the US and its imperial policies, the other is the logic of Latin America and the Global South.

The country will not emerge from 2017 the same as it entered. Either the fascist and subservient right wing manages to shield the political system, preventing Lula from running for office, or the people, the democratic forces, the Brazilian people, manage to dismantle the destruction of Brazil and ensure that the country's future is decided through the democratic process of direct elections.