Media magic makes Aécio disappear amidst the flood of accusations.

By Bajonas Teixeira de Brito Junior, political columnist for Cafezinho

Aécio Neves is the president of the largest opposition party to Dilma's government, the PSDB. He was the second most voted candidate in the last presidential elections and, in addition, spearheaded the demonstrations for impeachment and the process that led to Michel Temer's interim government. However, as if he were an ordinary citizen, Aécio disappears from the media, does not take a position on economic policy, and remains silent on crucial issues at a critical moment in the country's history.

Elsewhere, public opinion would not accept this disappearance because a political leader cannot simply abandon his responsibilities and hide. He would be accused of desertion. A battalion of reporters would be on Aécio's trail, day and night, like a search party after a deserter general. Above all, he could not shirk his responsibility to society and his voters regarding so many accusations, which are aggravated by coming from different accusers (Sérgio Machado, Pedro Corrêa, Léo Pinheiro, Delcídio do Amaral).

In Brazil, on the contrary, disappearing is the most common and well-known strategy of politicians accused of corruption. This is what Sérgio Cabral Filho, governor of Rio, did when many dark clouds gathered over his life. However, in Sérgio Cabral's case, Globo violated his seclusion, and an indiscreet article in Época magazine rubbed salt in his wound. The article's title said almost everything: According to whistleblowers, Cabral demanded a 5% bribe on the Maracanã stadium construction project.Ironically, the text began like this:

"Since leaving his post as governor of Rio, a little over two years ago, Sergio Cabral He became a reclusive politician. His public appearances are rare, and nothing is known about how he spends his days.

The article meticulously examined the allegations of wrongdoing associated with the former governor. But what about Aécio? Aécio is doing very well, thank you, because the media keeps him in the comfort of limbo, hidden behind a veil of invisibility. Everything indicates that he will hardly be dislodged from there.

With the numerous accusations leveled against Aécio since 2014, starting with the airport in his great-uncle's land, everything went smoothly, floating under a clear blue sky. Only recently, and very gradually, have the accusations gained greater visibility, and this is more due to Rodrigo Janot's Attorney General's Office than to the media's responsibility to inform. In any case, the accumulation of accusations in recent weeks has forced Aécio Neves to delve deeper into the underworld of invisibility.

The month of June 2016 proved exceptionally rich in corruption allegations involving Aécio Neves and, even worse, allegations sanctified by the label of "plea bargains." Thus, in the plea bargain of the former congressman convicted in the Mensalão and Lava Jato scandals, Pedro Correa (PP-PE), Aécio appears as indicating directors of Petrobras, while Sérgio Machado pointed to his involvement in payments, with resources naturally originating from corruption, to finance deputies and get elected president in Federal Chamber in 2001Finally, contractor Léo Pinheiro, partner and former president of OAS, claims that he paid bribes to Aécio's aides.

Despite the setbacks, although Aécio's situation has become extraordinarily complicated, the media did not erupt in a climate of witch hunt, of moral and political lynching, similar to what occurred with Lula at the time of his nomination for the ministry, when Globo even mobilized the Supreme Court to vociferously attack a former president of the republic.

The mild and friendly treatment, in which headlines appear only to disappear moments later from the portals, leaves no room for the theater of scandalized indignation.

Furthermore, on several occasions, the media comes to Aécio's defense, always indirectly, either by presenting him as a prestigious leader in the political arena, or by echoing defenses, such as the recent one by FHC (Fernando Henrique Cardoso) guaranteeing that Aécio never asked him for director positions at Petrobras.

The high-density silence, above all, which allows Aécio to disappear from the headlines indefinitely, constitutes the main form of protection that the media has granted him. The president of the PSDB may be slowly sinking into a swamp of discredit, but he is neither a victim of the widespread, albeit relatively mild, hatred that the country currently harbors for Eduardo Cunha, nor of the virulent hatred crystallized in certain segments of the middle class against Lula. The media has protected him from this.

Bajonas Teixeira de Brito Júnior – PhD in Philosophy, UFRJ, author of the books Logic of Disparate, Method and Delirium, and Logic of Ghosts, and professor in the Department of Social Communication at UFES.