Ubaldo has already declared war on FHC at the Brazilian Academy of Letters. And now?

247 – Former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso made a phrase of his own go down in history: "Forget everything I wrote." Now, however, what the politician wrote could lead him to the pinnacle of glory with a nomination to the Brazilian Academy of Letters (ABL), which is... about to happenSince FHC (Fernando Henrique Cardoso) is unlikely to have a suitable candidate for João de Scantimburgo's seat, his candidacy should be officially announced this Wednesday the 26th, after a memorial session for Scantimburgo, when the vacancy will be declared open.

Today, FHC (Fernando Henrique Cardoso) has his place practically guaranteed, and already receives the support of former president and also ABL (Brazilian Academy of Letters) member José Sarney. But it wasn't always like that. In October 1998, when the PSDB (Brazilian Social Democracy Party) candidate had just won re-election, the Bahian writer João Ubaldo Ribeiro, also a member of the Academy, declared himself strongly against the idea of ​​the then-president one day running for the ABL. And he guaranteed, through an article, that he would do everything to prevent it from happening.

"(...) if at that time I have any other power, you will only enter in my place, with the right to my place in the mausoleum of the immortals." João Ubaldo's text, which contains harsh criticism of the president, was written for the newspaper O Estado de S.Paulo – where the journalist wrote – and was initially censored, since the press at the time was entirely favorable to the PSDB government. It ended up being published a week later in Estadão itself, but only became known among newsrooms and intellectuals.

Still in the article, the writer from Bahia says that if FH (Fernando Henrique Cardoso) were to appear at the Academy one day, he wouldn't need to worry about extending his hand, because, like him, João Ubaldo could pretend not to see him. Today, as a columnist for the newspaper O Globo and possibly with different interests than in the past – in a recent article, he He came out in defense of the "coup-mongering press." Will João Ubaldo Ribeiro maintain his opposition to the former president? Or will he make a point of extending a hand to him when the latter becomes immortal?

Read below the full text of the article by João Ubaldo Ribeiro published in 1998 and retrieved by Leandro Fortes, from Carta Capitalin July 2010, when the first news about FHC's candidacy for the ABL (Brazilian Academy of Letters) came out.

Mr. President – ​​João Ubaldo Ribeiro

October 25th, 1998

Mr. President,

First of all, I want to congratulate you again on your resounding victory at the polls. I didn't like the result, just as I don't like you, although I say this with respect. I explain this respect for two reasons, in order of importance. The first is that, like any fellow citizen, including the millions of miserable people you are once again presiding over, you intrinsically deserve my respect. The second reason is that you embody a fundamental institution of our political system, the Presidency of the Republic, and I owe respect to this institution and would never insult it, whether you or any other legitimate occupant held it. Perhaps you won't even read what I'm writing now and, certainly, you won't care about some fool of a so-called intellectual, a mere author of a few books and a few thousand chronicles that will never cause you any harm. But I want to get my message across.

I also respect you because I know that my respect, even if perhaps reluctantly in private, is reciprocated, and I wouldn't abandon some commitments that, to be fair, you have maintained in your public life – the most important of which is freedom of expression and opinion. You, however, whom I once voted for, betrayed me, just as you betrayed many others like me. Although obscurely, I am from the same professional field as you, as I taught political science at universities in Bahia, and I know that you are a mediocre sociologist, whose book *The Brazilian Political Model* seemed to me a jumble of obvious statements that did not, and do not, contribute to our sociological thinking. But, as an old character of Jô Soares used to say, I believed you.

You made history not only as our president, but also as the first to be re-elected. Congratulations again, but you betrayed us. You were admired by people like me because of an ethical and political stance that led you to exile and suffering in the name of causes we believed in, or at least we thought you believed in, just as today you find it more convenient to profess belief in God than to deny it, as before. At certain moments in your government, you even made criticisms, sometimes fierce, of your own government, as if you were not its main representative. You, who have already endured the ridiculous situation of sitting in the mayor's chair in São Paulo, convinced that you were already elected, today think you are a competent politician and possibly have Machiavelli by your bedside. You are neither one thing nor the other; the problem runs much deeper. A competent politician is Antônio Carlos Magalhães, who is in charge of Brazil and, as I've already said here, if he were a candidate, I would vote for him and continue to oppose him, but at least he would be a much more manly president than you.

I don't like you, but I don't hate you; it's just a historical-glandular disagreement. You assumed the government based on a financial plan that you know isn't yours, partly because you lack the competence to even fully understand it, and today, largely driven by that plan, you govern us again. As I said last week, I don't wish you ill; I even wish you great success in your next term, not, of course, for your sake, but for the sake of the Brazilian people, for whom I have so much love that even now, as I write, I am crying.

I dare to remind you, sir, who shines so brightly when speaking French or Spanish (I speak English better, believe me) in your comings and goings around the world, at our expense, that you are the president of a miserable people, with one of the most inequitable income distributions on the planet. I dare to remind you that one of the most memorable achievements of your government, which is now ending so that another can begin, was the bailout, also at our expense, of thieving banks, whose perpetrators remain and will remain unpunished. I dare to say that you have done nothing to ennoble you in the hearts of many compatriots, like myself. I dare to recall that you, in an unbelievable display of insensitivity, advised all Brazilians to have regular medical check-ups. I dare to remember you calling Brazilian retirees lazy and vagrant. Of course, you were elected by the people, and I will not be the one to have the arrogance to say that I am right and the people are wrong. As I already asked last week, may God help you, Mr. President. Paradoxical as it may seem, I am rooting for you, because I am rooting for the hungry, ragged, humiliated, wronged, and unfortunate people, with whom you, in your palace, do not associate, but whom I, who am also from the Northeast, know very well. And I dare to fear that, after being reinstated, you will lie again and bring as much or more misfortune to the middle class than your predecessor who now lives in Miami.

We've already exchanged a few words when we met at ceremonies of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. If you, by chance, are there again and would deign to extend your hand to me, I will shake it respectfully, for I do not disrespect the president of my country. But it is not necessary for you to go through this embarrassment, for, just as you can pretend not to see me, I can do the same. And, speaking of the Academy, it occurs to me now that you might want to crown your glorious career by joining it. I am a little younger than you and have no power, other than affection, over my dear colleagues. But, if on that occasion I have any other power, you can only enter in my place, with the right to my spot in the mausoleum of the immortals.