Dilma pokes FHC, who reacts. That hurt.

Bombarded daily by the pro-PSDB media, President Dilma Rousseff decided to break her silence and engage in controversy – a fundamental decision to wage the promised “communication battle”. This Friday (20), questioned by the press about corruption at Petrobras, she put her finger on the wound. “If in 1996 or 1997 they had investigated and punished, we wouldn’t have the case of this Petrobras employee [Pedro Barusco] who spent almost 20 years working in the corruption scheme”. Immediately, former President FHC reacted, donning his tattered costume of a vestal virgin of ethics. The trained “columnists” of the media were also irritated by the president’s incisive response. In other words: it hurt!

The interview may indicate that the government has finally decided to counterattack, changing its strategy for confronting the coup-plotting PSDB party and the manipulative and selective media. The president made a point of remembering that during the sad reign of FHC [Fernando Henrique Cardoso], nothing was investigated. “Today I think a step has been taken in Brazil, and it is this step that we must look at and value. Currently, there is no 'file-away' of the Republic [as Geraldo Brindeiro, Attorney General of the Republic from 1995 to 2003, became known] and there is no control over the Federal Police... This means that, together with the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Judiciary, there is an investigative process underway in Brazil like never before.”

Folha, Estadão and the "columnists"

Faced with this more aggressive stance, the major newspapers reacted indignantly. In an editorial this Sunday (22), entitled “From silence to emptiness”, the pro-PSDB Folha snarls: “The statements made by President Dilma Rousseff (PT), after several weeks of silence, on the Petrobras case could have been merely pathetic, but they are worrying... Between a lack of political sensitivity, weak arguments and the erosion of her leadership, the president breaks the silence only to create an even greater sense of emptiness around her”. The major newspaper of the Frias family, which has never hidden its hatred of Petrobras and its “opposition position” to the PT governments, simply says nothing about the corruption scandals during FHC's reign. 

Along the same lines, the bankrupt Estadão newspaper also tried to discredit the president's interview. But it wasn't only the media barons who, in editorials, protested vehemently. Their trained "columnists" were even more realistic than the king – perhaps to justify their salaries! Merval Pereira, in his column in the newspaper O Globo, considered that "President Dilma's provocative statement" against FHC, "being so crude, can only be part of a coordinated action of confrontation." The "immortal" does not accept criticism of his crony in the Brazilian Academy of Letters (ABL). He never hid his loyalty to the former president and his policies – such as the privatization of state-owned companies or the close relationship with the USA.

Toucans were plucked.

Faced with the reactions of the media barons and their lackeys, the PSDB (Brazilian Social Democracy Party) didn't even need to comment. After all, the party already has 24-hour free airtime. Even so, the rejected FHC (Fernando Henrique Cardoso) and the party-goer Aécio Neves posed as victims. In a statement released on Friday, FHC – the same one who bought votes for his reelection and engaged in privatization – stated that President Dilma acted like a pickpocket, "who puts her hand in the victim's pocket, steals, and then shouts 'catch the thief'." With utter shamelessness, he repeated that "only from Lula's government onwards did corruption become systemic" and guaranteed that he never knew about the allegations against Petrobras during his administration. He's an innocent, a pure... a cynic! 

Senator Aécio Neves, who has not yet returned to his work after the Carnival festivities, stated that Dilma Rousseff's interview was based on "fantasy and marketing." "After a silence that lasted two months, certainly to distance herself from the economic measures taken by her government, the president reappears seemingly wanting to mock the intelligence of Brazilians," said the pro-PSDB party member. In practice, the PSDB members took the bait and confirmed that the strategy of confrontation and controversy, if actually adopted by President Dilma, can help break through the media's shield and unmask the false moralists.