If the climate isn't right for impeachment with COVID-19, then it's also not right for a coup.

By Alex Solnik, from Journalists for Democracy - After having commanded, yesterday, at the gates of the Army Headquarters in Brasília, what appeared to be the beginning of an insurrection for the return of dictatorship in Brazil, Bolsonaro has just emerged, upon leaving the Alvorada Palace, with a new speech, in which he transforms himself into a victim of the press and presents himself as a champion of democracy, wronged and misunderstood.

He was undoubtedly quite irritated by the repercussions of the events and by the possibility of impeachment proceedings against him because of what he had done.

“Where am I going wrong?” he asked himself at one point in the monologue, which sounded like the script of Snow White’s stepmother:

"Mirror, mirror on the wall/ is there anyone on this earth/ more wronged than me?"

He unleashed all his anger against "Folha," "Estadão," and "O Globo" simply because they accurately reported his participation in the event, which they called pro-coup. "They conspired to write the headline," he complained.

"I'm already president, why would I stage a coup?" he protested indignantly, as if it were nothing, but everyone who knows Brazilian history knows that Getúlio Vargas was president when he staged the Estado Novo coup in 1937, a situation that Vice President Hamilton Mourão has already called a "self-coup," which consists of closing Congress, ending political parties, and giving all power to the president.

He didn't answer any questions, he was the only one who spoke, anxious to undo the terrible impression he made yesterday.

But right after saying that he had never done anything against the press and that he defends freedom of expression, he did not answer, with his usual rudeness, a reporter's question:

"I don't want to answer Folha!" he shouted.

"I don't want to talk to O Globo. O Globo shouldn't even be here."

Another striking phrase was:

"I didn't say anything against another branch of government."

And he even had the nerve to come out with this:

"I am the constitution."

He spoke highly of Congress and the Supreme Court on two occasions, saying that he wants them open and that he respects them.

And he defended the end of the quarantine even more emphatically:

"I hope this is the last week."

"Either way, 70% will get infected."

"The people's refrigerator is empty."

It's impossible to say for sure that this change in discourse was caused by a conversation with the generals at the Presidential Palace, but that's what it seems like.

If there's no climate for impeachment amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, then there's also no climate for a coup, they must have told you.

It remains to be seen how long the wolf will continue to wear sheep's clothing.