Dilma versus the 300 crooks

President Dilma Rousseff has done everything to change the media agenda, but has not been successful. It is clear that the international economic and financial crisis and its repercussions in Brazil should be the main topic of political debate. There are a number of infrastructure projects to catch up on, especially since we have a World Cup coming up. And there is the priority established by the president: the end of poverty in the country.

Dilma is rightly trying to change the agenda. But corruption and the resulting misappropriation of public funds continue to dominate political coverage and the president's daily routine. Certainly, some politicians and media outlets intend for the successive scandals to cause serious damage to the government and the president. Accusations have always been a powerful weapon of the opposition, sometimes used well, sometimes misused.

But the succession of events that demonstrate the extremely high level of corruption in the country cannot, unfortunately, be attributed solely to an action or maneuver by the opposition. Repeating this might yield results in some sectors of public opinion, but increasingly narrow ones. The reality is that corruption exists and is widespread, regardless of whether the opposition wants to denounce it or exploit it politically.

It may even be that one day all these stories will become tiresome, that people will no longer be able to bear hearing about corruption and the press will give up on the subject. Some people are betting on this. Brazilians not involved in corruption seem to be becoming more and more docile and sheep-like. They find everything normal, they just want to live life peacefully and consider theft inevitable, part of the process. Violent or peaceful protests, encampments and marches of the indignant, street demonstrations, banging pots and pans – that's something from past generations, from Europeans and Latin American neighbors.

But it may not be quite like that, that people will decide to take action and that the scandals, bigger or smaller, will end up damaging the image of the government and the president. And this could have repercussions not only on the government's performance but also on the 2014 elections. It's a possibility, not dismissible like the previous one.

Some government sectors believe that, to exhaust the subject, it is enough to accuse the opposition and the press of exploiting inconsistent accusations to harm the government and let time pass. The opposition is naturally animated and playing its political games. Members of the Workers' Party (PT) know this practice well. The insistence on establishing parliamentary commissions of inquiry is an example of this. CPIs serve only as illuminated platforms for useless speeches. Those who truly want to investigate do not do so with CPIs. Those who want to wear down the government through shouting insist on them.

With the issue exhausted in the media and society, these government supporters reason with excessive capitalist realism, the threatened governability will be restored. And the government will continue smoothly until 2014 and will have continuity, with or without Dilma. But what if the issue is not exhausted? What if society wakes up and mobilizes against corruption?

In this case, it is crucial that Dilma is on the right side. The right side is not where Romero Jucá, Renan Calheiros, Henrique Eduardo Alves and their group in the PMDB are, sectors of the PT co-opted by "pragmatism," and the opportunistic lower clergy scattered across parties that mean nothing important but have enough votes in Congress to blackmail the government. The right side is not that of those who want to hide corruption under the pretext of governability and resorting to fighting against shackles on the rich and powerful.

Dilma, if the issue doesn't end (and if it does, it's not for lack of material, but because she's tired of it), will have to choose between the corrupt members of Congress (and there are more than the 300 crooks Lula spoke of before becoming president) and the population that wants to see the country grow without corruption. She cannot pretend that there isn't gross corruption in the Ministries of Tourism, Agriculture, Labor, Cities, and so on.

If she continues the purge, which seems to have been suspended, and seeks support from public opinion, Dilma will be able to calmly confront the 300 crooks (in a modest count) and continue governing, contrary to what the contemporary camp followers proclaim. Especially since they are crooks and opportunists who don't know how to stay away from government, any government. And when they feel the tide has turned, they will change too. As they always have.