The 'centrist bloc' is not the solution.

247, by José Reinaldo Carvalho, for Journalists for Democracy Even the most astute analyst of the national situation could never have imagined that, just over a hundred days into its term, the far-right government, elected with the pretense of possessing popular support and vast, solid political backing, would enter a crisis and struggle to get any measure approved in Parliament.

Many assumed that the reforms would be approved quickly, especially the pension reform, which was unanimously supported by the ruling classes and their representatives in the market, the media, and parliament, including leaders of both the "new" and "old" politics.

Bolsonaro's triumphant visit to the Speaker of the House's office seemed to signal that political consensus had finally been established once and for all in the central government, and the country was preparing to "save" the magical figure of "one trillion," set by Paulo Guedes, and thus end once and for all the fiscal hell in which the country's economy has been burning for decades. Political "consensus" would thus be the key that would unlock the doors to prosperity fueled by abundant foreign investment, continued growth, job creation, and increased national income.

But as in real political life, consensus, under certain circumstances, only appears after conflict, it soon became clear that it was a straw man. The government cannot even get past the first stage of the pension reform amendment process – its admissibility in the Constitution and Justice Committee of the Chamber of Deputies.

The Bolsonaro government, as the pinnacle of far-right forces, garnered the consensus of the ruling classes and their political representatives merely as a tool to remove from power the left-wing and center-left forces that sought to put Brazil on the path of exercising national sovereignty, democracy, and social progress.

But Bolsonaro's political, economic, and social program can be very well and better implemented, in its essential aspects, by the right-wing and center-right political forces that have always governed Brazil throughout almost all of Brazilian republican history, which will celebrate its 130th anniversary in November.

The political representatives of the ruling classes believe they can do without an illiterate and furious clan, neo-Pentecostal fundamentalists, ultramontane isolationists, a crude populist, and cheap philosophers in government and the parliamentary majority, in order to implement agendas and programs of oppression of the people and alienation of the national economy to the interests of monopoly finance capital.

These political representatives possess the expertise to carry out their activities and refuse to be treated differently than they believe they deserve.

It is on this basis that the infamous and misnamed "centrão" (center bloc) operates. This is how political bosses like the presidents of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate think and act. The pension reform will pass, provided that the interests of this sector – whether "new" or "old" in politics – are accommodated.

Support the Journalists for Democracy project. The country is in a serious impasse, with the Bolsonaro government and its blunders being the main reflection of this. The political representatives of the ruling classes will know how to take advantage of the situation, they will negotiate, and find political solutions, as they always have. If they don't, it's because the situation will have reached an extreme point and the real powers will judge that it's time to impose the neoliberal and anti-popular agenda by other means, that is, the establishment of an open dictatorship.

Therefore, while it may be instrumentally useful to employ procedural maneuvers with the help of the "centrão" (center bloc) to disrupt the plans of the Bolsonaro clique, caution is necessary, because what the "centrão" is really negotiating is not preventing the pension reform, but rather perks, positions, influence, power, and the maintenance of the "republican" status quo under its control. The "centrão" is not the solution.

The left needs to regain the initiative and find, through its unity and the mobilization of popular and labor movements, the paths to organize real political and social opposition to the far-right government. It must pursue a policy of broad alliances, without the illusion that the protagonism of the center and political bosses like Maia and Alcolumbre will lead it anywhere.