Editorial: Never Before in History

05/07/2015 - 08h46

To use an idiom often uttered by former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, never before in history did the Worker's Party (PT) see its image worn out to such an extent as now, what with all the banging of cooking pots and honking that accompanied the party's broadcast on the TV and radio last Tuesday evening (May 5th).

The honking and the "pot-banging" protests did not represent a sudden change to the current political climate in Brazil. As we all know, since the pronouncement of President Dilma Rousseff (PT) on Women's Day two months ago, such acts have increasingly played a part in the national political debate.

In other occasions, however, protests against a weakened president and a government that won by a very narrow margin last October only reinforced the sense of electoral larceny.

This time the target was the political body that has run the country since 2003. The fact that Ms Rousseff's statements were not incorporated into the propaganda of her own party did not prove a means to the end of bringing protests to a halt.

Instead, protests have had their strength renewed in at least one way. By trying to hide the President -a bizarre concept in itself - the Worker's Party ended up exposing Lula, a character that the political party always considered an asset for future elections.

Moreover, the party has shown how much it is out of tune with the leadership and the government that helps keep it all together. It was not the president's action that were glorified, but the action of the political party she belonged to, as if it could slowly break away from Ms Rousseff's meek popularity.

Even if the task could be carried out, how could the party break away from its own shadow? According to Datafolha, around 13% of voters now say they prefer the Worker's Party to other parties (this figure was 22% in December); during the Mensalão scandal, this percentage did not drop below 15%.

Such decline can be attributed to many factors, but hardly any have a greater impact than the party's repeated involvement in corruption scandals.

Just notice that Rui Falcão, the national president of the Worker's Party, considered it appropriate to emphasize that any guilty party member will be expelled.

In the past, when the party could still consider itself to be the herald of political morality, such a statement would be unnecessary - a dismissal was implicit and expected.

Today, it sounds a little demagogic. Clinging on to the principle that criminal laws are not retroactive to the detriment of the defendant, Worker's Party leaders intend to preserve those convicted in the Mensalão scandal.

It seems that, once again, the Worker's party has used national television to promote deceitful propaganda.

Translated by CRISTIANE COSTA LIMA

Read the article in the original language