Bestialization needs Temer.

The Michel Temer government is in its death throes, in the same situation it was in when it came into the world: engaged in cabinet maneuvers attempting to give it a breath of life, far removed from the sovereign powers of the people.

This is the scandalous point of the situation. After paralyzing the country for 22 months, producing the artificial apocalypse that created the conditions for a parliamentary coup and produced the worst economic crisis in its history, the same gentlemen who hold the reins of state power no longer know what to do with Temer.

That is why, in a country with 127 years of republican history, it returns to the world of 1889 – the world that watched, bewildered, the choreography of November 15th, staged by an essentially slave-owning elite, interested in avenging the abolition announced the previous year.

There are attempts to extend Temer's term by any means necessary until any day after December 31, 2016, when the deadline expires for the more than 100 million Brazilians to choose, by ballot, the third president of the Republic since Dilma Rousseff's victory in October 2014.

The absolute priority, as we already know, is that we be kept in a brutalized state, exactly as Aristides Lobo described it, hours after Deodoro's sword toppled the crown of Pedro II.

Our powerful figures already spared Temer once, when they pretended it was possible to ignore the vice president's signature on the release of billions in funds from the so-called "fiscal maneuvers," a pretext for impeachment without a crime of responsibility.

Today, in desperate maneuvers, there is an attempt to continue the plan to criminalize Dilma in the Electoral Court, to ensure the loss of her political rights, and, at the same time, install Temer on the altar of biblical angels. Despite the friendly effort, the maneuver became complicated after the checks made out to the vice-president.  

The impasse of the last few days is the result of one of those accidents along the way, which seem like the work of chance but only happen in a particularly conducive environment, transforming a possible tragedy into an inevitable outcome.      

The formula that brought down Temer has the simplicity of mathematical theorems learned in high school. In a government with little legitimacy, there are many favors to repay and no unconditional loyalty to offer.   

In a world where everyone looks out for themselves, some pockets may get full, but the final sum is always nothing.

Thus, it was discovered that a president committed to dismantling the affordable housing program "Minha Casa, Minha Vida" (My House, My Life) was caught trying to cover up the R$ 2,4 million BNH (National Housing Bank) grant to Minister Geddel Lima.

Appointed as a minister in a portfolio that Temer abolished upon taking office, backing down due to the indignant fury of artists and intellectuals, Marcelo Calero entered the government as an outsider and considered it prudent to remain so – as he made clear on the day he recorded the conversation with the president. Even as a newcomer, he exercised professional, veteran-like caution. This is not surprising, one might say. 

The sequence evokes shame and pettiness in a chemically pure state.

It's worth remembering that the country is in the midst of a historical holocaust, forced to surrender achievements and relinquish immense wealth and possibilities that were unthinkable until recently.

The plan is to force our children and grandchildren to live in a country worse than that of their parents and grandparents, even more unequal, even less breathable. The plan is – make no mistake – brutalization. It needs Temer.