Lava Jato bomb explodes in Temer's lap.

It's difficult to choose the worst piece of bad news Michel Temer received this weekend. As I was preparing to write about the bombshell that landed in his lap with the new revelations from Sérgio Machado's wiretaps, which "Fantástico" broadcast yesterday, I came across the information that he placed two properties worth 2 million reais in the name of his seven-year-old son, Michelzinho, which, although seemingly legal, can be understood as a clear maneuver to hide assets, since he declared assets of only 800 reais to the tax authorities.

By one of those ironies of fate, both the "Fantástico" bomb and the Riocentro bomb were detonated by two gentlemen with the surname Machado.

Captain Wilson Dias Machado's plan, intended to provoke an attack at the May Day show and which unintentionally exploded in his lap on April 30, 1981, aimed to undermine General Figueiredo's government; yesterday's plan, detonated by Sergio Machado to incriminate his friends, is yet another bombshell shaking the provisional government, compromising, in one fell swoop, another minister of the provisional government; the president of the Senate and Temer's vice-president, and Temer himself, who reached his position with the decisive collaboration of Renan and who appointed the minister who fell from grace and, everything indicates, will fall again today. Renan's fate will be no different since, in addition to being caught in maneuvers to obstruct Lava Jato, we have learned that he is involved with the money launderer Alberto Yousseff.

The illustrious unknown Fabiano Silveira, who on the day of the wiretapping was a member of the National Council of Justice and today is the Minister of Transparency (it seems like a joke), appears in the wiretaps not only advising Renan on how to defend himself, but also acting as his emissary to spy on Lava Jato.

Renan gives himself away by saying he's worried about the R$400 donation he received from Transpetro, and to make matters worse, the former president and his protégé, Sergio Machado, the alleged author of the wiretap who made the donation to his campaign, reassures him by informing him that the receipts were provided by the money launderer Alberto Youssef. "Youssef [Alberto] took care of that," Machado says in the wiretap. The money launderer allegedly provided receipts, but for a larger total of R$800.

Since it's public knowledge that Youssef only gets involved when it's necessary to do dirty work, nobody can feel reassured by this kind of tranquilizer. It's definitive proof that the donation was fraudulent.

It's impossible to assume that Renan will remain as president of the Senate, given the explosive content of the recordings. He will have to resign, for the second time in his career, "to defend himself," as is usually the justification for a strategic withdrawal in cases of involvement in scandals like his.

But that's not all. It is foreseeable that a process of impeachment will be opened against him (or against him, as is fashionable to say) in the Ethics Council for breach of decorum and that the Supreme Court will release him to be questioned in Curitiba.

In other words, Renan, who until yesterday was considered by many to be the big shot in Brazilian politics, is just another card out of Temer's deck.

It's clear that the Minister of Transparency will also fall. Although his role was important to the group, he himself, being insignificant, won't be such a big loss, but by being unmasked he exposed the interim president, as it became clear that he was appointed not to investigate what is wrong in the government but to help Temer and his friends in the arduous mission of outsmarting the Attorney General's Office and Lava Jato.

It was a nightmare weekend for Temer. On Saturday night he met with Minister Gilmar Mendes, the current president of the TSE (Superior Electoral Court), which didn't go down well, not only because meetings outside of working hours are always suspicious, but also because the TSE is currently analyzing the process to annul the Dilma-Temer ticket. A strange meeting indeed.

Even before the Fantástico bombshell, there were already clear indications that Globo wasn't exactly fond of Temer. The first sign came on the day of the meeting where he slammed his hand on the table, right after announcing, in his typical style, that one of the things he "might" do is borrow 100 million from BNDES. That same night, while images of the meeting were being shown on Globo News, Merval Pereira was adamant in declaring that he couldn't do that; the constitution doesn't allow it.

The second sign emerged last night on the program Painel, when anchor Renata Lo Prete stated that those who try to compare the Temer government to Itamar's are wrong; it would be more appropriate to compare it to Sarney's.

Taking into account that Itamar's government was successful and Sarney's a resounding failure, and that the opinions of Merval and Lo Prete, far from being personal, express the thinking of Globo's Director of Journalism and, ultimately, of the Marinho family, it can be concluded that the country's largest broadcaster is not willing to help Temer to the same extent that it hindered Dilma, when it called on the population to take to the streets, which was the alibi used by deputies and senators to approve the first phase of the impeachment.

I have the impression that Globo's stance is a response to the appointment of Marcos Pereira to the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Development. He is not only an outsider, without any qualifications for the position, but also an employee of Edyr Macedo, founder of the party he leads and owner of Rede Record, with which Rede Globo is engaged in a life-or-death battle for ratings. Perhaps this was the most fatal of Temer's many mistakes in forming his makeshift government, because governing without Globo on his side is possible, but with Globo against him it is extremely risky.

This doesn't necessarily mean that Globo misses President Dilma, but it does mean that it won't help Temer in the second phase of the impeachment process, which is already an advantage for Globo, whose popularity has only grown since she was deposed, rising from 18% to 33% approval. This is yet another good reason for Globo to remain neutral: while the former president's ratings are rising, those of the interim president are falling.

Between us, no ally of the ousted government could have caused as much damage to its illegitimate successor as Sergio Machado's wiretaps and a corrupt Globo network. How will the senators, in the second round of voting, claim without blushing that the impeachment is based on fiscal irregularities and the Plano Safra program, given so much evidence that it was a conspiracy against Lava Jato?

The worst news for Temer is yet to come.