Michel Temer's well-deserved absence from Rio 2016
"Unable to face the crowd gathered at the Maracanã for the closing ceremony of Rio 2016, as recommended by the protocol for an event of this nature, interim president Michel Temer had no real reason to participate in the celebration. The Olympics are part of the legacy – by no means the most important – of Lula and Dilma, which the interim president stabbed in the back by assuming power through a coup d'état," says Paulo Moreira Leite; "Days before the Senate's final decision, his absence shows a president who prefers to avoid direct contact with the people, raising doubts about his future behavior should he be confirmed in office."
Michel Temer's absence from the closing ceremony of Rio 2016 is a demonstration of the interim president's political weakness, as he preferred not to face the crowd gathered at the Maracanã stadium.
Temer feared an unforgettable booing and a cry of "Out with Temer!" to go down in history and perhaps change it, days before the Federal Senate met to debate the impeachment.
The absence had a didactic aspect, however. Neither Temer nor his ministers could claim anything positive from an initiative that proved to be a success in terms of organization and revealed an encouraging sign of progress for Brazilian sport in the last decade and a half.
It is right to remember the pain and suffering of families who were displaced from their homes, with only a small percentage having received fair compensation so far. It is a tragedy that must be faced, resolved, and denounced until an acceptable solution is found. But the pain of the poorest and most excluded has never been the real reason for criticism and ominous prophecies, right?
As even the waters of Guanabara Bay know, all sporting medals belong to the victorious athletes, their assistants, and their families.
The political trophies -- gold, silver, and bronze -- are a product of the Lula-Dilma period, which brought the Olympics to Brazil and demonstrated competence in ensuring its success in partnership with Rio de Janeiro's mayor, Eduardo Paes.
As with so many advancements made during this period, even more important than an Olympics, Temer stabbed this legacy in the back by assuming power through a coup d'état orchestrated by his adversaries shortly after his fourth consecutive defeat in presidential elections. The number of medals is a record. In another feat, Brazil has never won so many gold medals. And it is obvious, as the athletes are the first to acknowledge, that this result is inseparable from an effort to secure support for Brazilian sport through public programs that had long been demanded but never delivered.
The recognition from tourists and visitors is so great that the lie told by the American swimmers about being robbed in the middle of the night while drunken was deserved both local and international condemnation.
The gold medal in football, the first in history, leaves no doubt about the overall result. After the dramatic final against the Germans, the population has the right to celebrate a complete victory in the sport that, as of yesterday, can once again be a source of national pride.
The interim government's main contribution to the Rio 2016 Olympics was, days before, to arrest citizens accused of planning terrorist acts – an initiative that, whether based on real suspicions or not, created unnecessary political tension through its fanfare, serving to fuel an unfair atmosphere of pessimism and fear.
Everything that was supposed to go wrong went right. And etiquette dictates, in such cases, that the best thing to do is to slip away quietly.
For more information, read another article about the Olympics published here: http://www.brasil247.com/pt/blog/paulomoreiraleite/250794/At%C3%A9-na-Olimp%C3%ADada-querem-roubar-Dilma.htm
* This is an opinion article, the responsibility of the author, and does not reflect the opinion of Brasil 247.