Government of national catastrophe

An inauguration ceremony for someone from this government is an otherworldly scene. Firstly, because it seems like there's a government behind it all, when there's nothing. It's a collection of folkloric characters, handpicked by the worst president Brazil has ever had, who remain in their positions through subservience to all the nonsense the president spouts every day.

Secondly, because Bolsonaro lost the ability to govern, whether due to his own incompetence and that of his ministers, or due to internal checks on the government imposed by the military, or by those imposed by the Judiciary and Congress. He was almost left with only the power – albeit a relative one – to dismiss and appoint officials, and to make arbitrary statements and threats that he cannot carry out.

It would be comical if it weren't tragic. If there weren't a country adrift, an economy that has gone from recession to depression, a precarious situation for workers that has increased from 40 to 62,1 million people, and a pandemic that kills hundreds of Brazilians daily, all in the face of the president's inaction and apathy. It's a tragedy unlike any Brazil has ever experienced, and one that threatens, starting in May, to become a catastrophe for the country, its population, its economy, for everything and everyone.

 What can be done to prevent this situation? First and foremost, the government needs to radically change its stance on the pandemic. The new health minister himself appears disoriented and unprepared to face the current situation, let alone the disaster that is looming in May.

 We should propose the appointment of someone qualified, legitimate, and prestigious to assume the position of Minister of Health, with full political and economic powers, to make combating the pandemic the number one priority of the government and the country, and to confront it with all the resources at our disposal, in an attempt to avoid this catastrophe, which threatens to kill several thousand Brazilians as early as May. Someone like Drauzio Varela, who would have widespread support to concentrate all the resources and energies of Brazilians to face the pandemic.

 We can then begin to seriously address the challenges of the pandemic and have someone serious and responsible who will finally ensure that the country defends the health of its population, public health personnel, and all victims or potential victims of the pandemic. We can save hundreds of thousands of Brazilian lives, stop living daily with the number of hundreds of anonymous deaths, reduced to mere numbers, nameless, faceless, without relatives, lifeless.

 On the other hand, it will be practically impossible for the country to seriously confront these threats and, subsequently, the challenges of rebuilding Brazil's economy and recovering the millions of jobs lost, with this government, with this president. He not only fails to act, but becomes an obstacle, diverting the country's attention and sabotaging actions to defend the population.

 The clamor for "Out with Bolsonaro!" is growing, although a large part of the population does not feel safe enough to support the removal of the current president without any guarantee of what will come next. It cannot simply be a matter of replacing the president with the vice-president while keeping the entire group of ministers, including the military, who are complicit in the political, economic, and public health crimes committed by Bolsonaro. 

Brazil needs a plan to rebuild the country, but it also needs to envision who can embody that plan, led by someone with legitimacy, credibility, and the ability to unite all Brazilians who trust in democracy and in the country itself. Someone like Nelson Jobim, for example, or another similar figure, who has influence across all areas of democratic politics and can politically and morally reunite Brazil to recover it economically, politically, socially, and morally.

 This is the immediate path for us to move from this government of public calamity to a democratic, legitimate government that will lead the country back to the path of peace, coexistence, economic recovery, overcoming the pandemic, and restoring the Brazilian people's love for their country.