Democracy is the fascists' hell.

It was regrettable to see Congressman Otoni de Paula, MDB/RJ, who presents himself as an evangelical pastor, criticize President Lula for vetoing the unconstitutional sentencing bill, whose objective was to reduce the sentences applied to criminals who attacked the democratic rule of law and attempted a coup d'état, in the events that culminated on January 8, 2023.

From 2023 to 2025, a historic struggle took place in Brazil to prosecute, convict, and imprison all those who participated in the destruction of the headquarters of the Three Branches of Government in Brasília, including the organizers, masterminds, and perpetrators of the coup plot. 

A significant portion of the national ruling class worked to prevent the trial and convictions, under the worn-out argument that "the country needs peace" and that "it would be better to turn the page." In other words, once again, they tried to impose the political culture of pacification, which dates back to the Second Reign, formalized in the conciliation cabinet, headed by the Marquis of Paraná (1853-1856); a tactic always pulled out of thin air when the objective is to prevent any significant political change and/or leave everything as it is.

It is no coincidence that the absence of the presidents of the Chamber of Deputies and the Federal Senate at the event on January 8, 2025, represented the contempt that part of the Brazilian parliament has for democracy, an institution harshly attacked by the coup plotters, whose members were anything but innocent.

It is important to remember that the people who were intended to benefit, first with amnesty and then with sentencing guidelines, were part of the group that even tried to blow up a fuel tanker truck at Brasília airport on Christmas Eve 2022. “Good and kind” people who destroyed listed public property in the headquarters of the Republic's powers, with the aim of erasing part of the national memory.

Incidentally, one of those caught in the attempted tanker explosion, sentenced to nine years and four months in prison, became a fugitive after being granted semi-open prison status. That is, the criminal conman who participated in the encampments at military barracks gates and attempted to endanger the lives of thousands of Brazilians was granted sentence progression, but he did not respect the law and fled, only to be recaptured in September 2025.

In fact, as President Lula rightly said, the "dosimetry" project was the method found by the majority of members of the Brazilian parliament to try to erase and consign to oblivion the acts that threatened the Constitution, democracy, and Brazilian institutions.

Unfortunately, there is a significant portion of the Brazilian parliament, with terrible behavior in the current legislature, that works against the Constitution and even tries to exonerate criminals convicted by final judgment, who wanted to revoke, by force of authoritarianism and tyranny, the constitutional order and introduce a dictatorship, equal to or worse than that of 1964-1985.

Congressman Pastor Otoni, in criticizing President Lula (to whom he had previously given a "blessing" at the Planalto Palace) for the aforementioned presidential veto, was trying to secure support among his electorate in Brazil, the fascists who continue plotting against democracy, an institution they despise and attempt to destroy at all costs. 

Incidentally, a recent survey indicated that the Liberal Party, of the former president who was a criminal and convicted felon, is preferred by 12% of Brazilian voters. Many people were surprised by the disclosure of this percentage of PL supporters; however, it is necessary to remember that, in the 1930s, the Integralist party (of the Brazilian fascists of that time) had more than one million participants, whose slogan was the same one used by the former president in the 2018 election campaign: "God, Fatherland, and Family."

In other words, today's fascists are heirs to that past and are now part of the group that works against the rights of the working class, in favor of the ruling class, against national sovereignty and development.

As denounced by Luís Carlos Prestes in the ANL manifesto of 1935, the great struggle being waged in Brazil at that time was against imperialism, large landholdings, and fascism; unfortunately, these forces remain alive, especially fascism, which has ramifications in various social organizations and is still fully active in the country, as denounced by Minister Alexandre de Moraes in several decisions at the Supreme Federal Court.

Therefore, President Lula did very well to veto the unconstitutional "dosimetry" bill, in an act of disapproval of the legislative error, which, in fact, aimed to erase from national memory the tragedy that was January 8, 2023, and to pardon the fascists, who find their true hell in democracy.