Temer and multiple organ failure

Day after day, the sham government built around Michel Temer after the parliamentary coup is proving to be facing a very serious crisis that, for lack of a better term, we can define as multiple organ failure, affecting the economy, politics, and the lives of 206 million Brazilians.

From the outside, everything seems fine within the organization. Congress approves measures that, due to their unpopularity, would be unthinkable under a democratic regime. The friendly media guarantees favorable coverage in a form of opportunism that sooner or later will demand further damage to its already dwindling credibility. The country faces the most severe economic depression in its history, but a disorganized opposition has so far lacked the strength to lead protests and mobilizations in defense of wages and jobs—something that was possible, as everyone will remember, even during the military regime, in the glorious struggles that allowed the birth of a bearded man with a deep voice and firm discourse, who would occupy the center of Brazilian history for the next four decades.

The reality is quite different, as has been known since the beginning of a year marked by mass killings that indicate the failure of the prison system.

A summary of the last 24 hours provides a good overview of the situation. A lower court judge blocked the appointment of Moreira Franca as Minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic, where he could protect himself from the Lava Jato investigations. The Attorney General's Office managed to overturn the injunction against Temer's friend, but a second court decision upheld the block on the appointment.

A week after his re-election was celebrated as a colossal victory for Temer, the Speaker of the House, Rodrigo Maia, was accused by the Federal Police of receiving a bribe of R$ 1 million from the construction company OAS. At the lower levels of the state pyramid, there were also striking developments.

In an action that included displaying weapons in the air, civil police officers, dissatisfied with the pension reform, stormed Congress yesterday afternoon. 

In Espírito Santo, a state that until recently was cited by TV Globo as an example to be followed by the entire country, the Military Police strike for a salary increase has left the population at the mercy of criminal gangs, who have already committed 96 homicides as of yesterday. A photo on the front page of today's edition of Estado de S. Paulo shows residents of a condominium in Greater Vitória creating barriers to prevent the entry of delinquents.

In Rio, in an obvious effort to avoid a rebellion that would only worsen a general state of unrest, on the same day that his mandate was revoked by the Regional Electoral Court for corruption, the governor of Rio de Janeiro, Luiz Fernando Pezão, signed a 10% increase for police officers and other members of public security.

With budgets crippled by the drop in their own revenues and federal transfers, the collapse of other state governments—besides the Rio Grande do Sul terminal—and municipalities is a matter of months, weeks, or even less. The real horizon is the Amendment that reduces spending for two decades. In a federal republic, all roads lead to Brasília.

In this environment, even disguises worn by those dressed as garbage collectors are purely for advertising purposes and have a short lifespan—they display an advertisement without a product.  

The unease has a material origin, easy to identify, in the radical and permanent austerity program that Temer and Meirelles have been committed to implementing since day one.

The difficulty in finding a real way out lies in the inherent weakness of the coup coalition that took over the government in May 2016. A classic pact with the devil, well-studied by political science, was consummated there. There is nothing religious about this view.  

Governments without popular vote are condemned to live with the floodgates of social hell that inhabit the underbelly of an unequal, backward society with a long history of authoritarianism like ours. This is how the process works: sooner or later, the devil appears to collect the debt, which is always heavy and difficult to pay.    

This is the world that comes to light, beneath the irresponsible surface of rulers who confess – without embarrassment – ​​that they are not afraid of their own unpopularity, making it clear that they do not intend to be accountable to the people for their actions.

Unlike biblical demons, however, human hells are not eternal and can be overcome by the power of reason—a truth that, in a democracy, translates to respect for the will of the majority and the return of popular mobilizations.

The events of the last 24 hours show that it is more than time to react, to prevent a democratic collapse whose final outcome is the consolidation of a state of exception.