, Columnist
Brazil’s Politics and Economics Are Splitting Apart
Can a government divided against itself still stand?
Thy hand, great Anarch!
Photographer: MauroPimentel/AFP via Getty Images
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Gauging by decibels, Brazil’s political outlook is anything but reassuring. Hardly a week passes without President Jair Bolsonaro or his splenetic First Family taking a swipe at democratic decorum. Bolsonaro’s attacks on the independent press and youngest son Eduardo Bolsonaro’s threat to restore emergency powers from Brazil’s days of military rule are just two of the latest episodes.
As if that weren’t clatter enough, now comes former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, fresh out of jail on a Supreme Court rule change — allowing him to appeal his graft conviction in liberty and stir a left-wing revanche.