Bolsonaro's fascism comes out of the closet, frightens, and could reach the second round.

Jair Bolsonaro went to Roda Viva on Monday night (30) and took his fascism out of the closet. He startled those who had not yet seen his performances in debates. It was everything that was expected, but he surprised with his discursive competence. With Geraldo Alckmin stalled and wearing the cap of coup candidate (here), the retired captain is more favored than ever to be in the second round against Lula or the candidate indicated by the former president. If the scenario is confirmed, the right will be out of the second round - it will be the turn of the far-right with fascist overtones.

Bolsonaro's collection of statements is terrifying. He claimed "there was no military coup in 1964," justified the practice of torture during the military regime, said "we lived in the Cold War," and claimed Vladimir Herzog committed suicide. Furthermore, he caused astonishment by announcing that his favorite book is "The Suppressed Truth" by Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra, who commanded the most terrible torture center of the dictatorship, the DOI-Codi in São Paulo. Bolsonaro's brazenness didn't stop there. He even openly defended the execution of Fernando Henrique Cardoso.

He blamed black people for slavery in Brazil: "The Portuguese didn't even set foot in Africa, it was the black people themselves who handed over their own slaves." And he reacted to a question about the country's debt to the descendants of slaves: "What debt is that, my God in heaven?". Even more: "I never enslaved anyone! What debt?". 

He said that the military intervention in Rio is a failure because the military doesn't have carte blanche to act, "it didn't work because it lacks legal backing. Why did it work in Haiti? And why can only one side shoot?" 

The panel on Roda Viva, which roared like a lion with Manuela D'Ávila of the PCdoB, meowed like a kitten in the face of the fascist. The journalists were somewhere between embarrassed and cornered. They all fell silent when Bolsonaro recited from memory a passage from an editorial in O Globo signed by Roberto Marinho, which called the military coup a democratic revolution. Bolsonaro also reminded them that TV Globo was founded in 1965, right after the coup, and Veja magazine in 1968. Everyone remained quiet.

Ultimately, it was the conservative press, along with the PSDB party, that removed the genie from the bottle—and now, in desperation, they are trying to put it back. 

It will be difficult. Brazil remains in the same polarization that has persisted since the 1990s, between the left and the right. While one pole remains occupied by the PT (Workers' Party), the PSDB (Brazilian Social Democracy Party) has been sidelined. By staging a coup against Brazil's fragile democracy, the PSDB has been relegated to the gutter. Alckmin is languishing around 5% in the polls. The traditional space of the right (PSDB) has been swallowed up by the far-right (Bolsonaro).

Alckmin, the Centrão (a group of center-right political parties), and Temer, one of the main sponsors of the former governor's candidacy, are confident that their extensive airtime during the free election broadcasts will be enough to unseat Bolsonaro. However, the more Alckmin adopts the persona of a coup candidate, the more his chances dwindle. 

What happened yesterday, from an audience standpoint, is a preview of hell for the right wing. The program ended its broadcast on the channel's YouTube channel at peak viewership with 228 people watching the interview. An absolute record in the history of Roda Viva. On Facebook, while the program was being broadcast live, the number of views reached 1,5 million. By dawn, it had already reached 1,8 million. The video with the interview of Ciro Gomes, from the PDT party, the second most-watched candidate up to that point, had 1 million views as of yesterday, counted since the program with the PDT candidate aired on May 28th. In the Ibope ratings, Ciro had also been, until then, one of the highest-rated programs with 1,1 points, which corresponds to about 220 people. According to preliminary data from... TeleguideBolsonaro's interview will get around 2 points. 

Professor Camilo de Oliveira Aggio, from the Federal University of Bahia, presented a valuable summary of what happened on Monday night: "Contrary to what many imagined (or hoped), his lack of intelligence and misinformation do not prevent him from performing poorly in debates and interviews. The guy manages to compensate for all his cognitive shortcomings with confrontation tactics, encouraging cacophony, and, with all his verbosity, he manages to freeze the interviewers, who are left stupefied and back down while he always continues to have the last word" - read here The full comment can be found on the professor's Facebook profile.

The person who appeared on Roda Viva was Jair Bolsonaro. But his performance immediately brought to mind another former military man, the sergeant with the ridiculous mustache who thought and said things very similar to what the retired captain of the Brazilian Army is now saying.

More than ever, the future of Brazilian democracy rests on Lula's shoulders.