The almost four years of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in the presidency have put the country's institutions in check, in the most severe stress test that Brazilian democracy has ever endured. They have also put under scrutiny non-partisan journalism, the cornerstone of this newspaper.
As the country prepares to make its choice, Folha remains convinced that non-partisanship is the best way to do critical, impartial, and independent journalism, one of the greatest public utilities.
This Sunday (30) Brazilian voters have two very different options in front of them.
If Bolsonaro is chosen, the vote will fall on the politician who has set aside government responsibilities to dedicate himself to his tyrannical project of eliminating limits to presidential power.
What is at stake is not just the next four years. These are nearly four decades of the full exercise of democracy in Brazil, exemplary anywhere in the world. It is this fundamental achievement of society that is under threat from Bolsonaro's Caesarist project.
He attacked the Judiciary and, especially, the Federal Supreme Court whenever he could. He put the Attorney General's Office at his feet. He tried to discredit the secure electoral system and its world-renowned electronic ballot boxes.
He appointed record numbers of members of the military to government posts. Most of them are painfully incompetent, as in the case of the general in charge of the Ministry of Health during the pandemic. He discredited and delayed the Covid-19 vaccine during the biggest health crisis to hit the world in generations.
He targeted the Enlightenment consensus with his agenda of obscurantist customs, in a mad effort to convert civility into barbarism. He made an apology for torture. He armed the population by decree and defied the rule of law, women, secularism, minorities, and the independent press.
He stimulated deforestation in the Amazon and disregarded the environmental and climate agenda, turning the country into an international pariah.
If the majority prefers Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the elected official will be a politician who, in his previous mandates, left achievements and also blemishes, particularly in the grisly cases of corruption discovered in his government. Throughout his career, he has repeatedly shown respect for the democratic game.
In this campaign, the PT candidate did not make clear his plans in the vital field of the economy. He did not indicate whether he intends to re-edit the responsible management that marked his first term or the wasteful statism that culminated in Dilma Rousseff's social disaster.
Whatever the choice of the electorate, Folha is committed to providing critical coverage of the next government. And to uphold democracy.
Translated by Cassy Dias