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The Americas Apr 11th 2020 edition

Bello

Jair Bolsonaro isolates himself, in the wrong

way
The Brazilian president’s reckless handling of covid-19 will come back to haunt him

Apr 11th 2020

Editor’s note: The Economist is making some of its most important coverage of the
 g f p g f
covid-19 pandemic freely available to readers of The Economist Today, our daily
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see our hub

O ne by one the doubters have made their peace with medical science. Only fou
rulers in the world continue to deny the threat to public health posed by
covid-19. Two are otsam from the former Soviet Union, the despots of Belarus
and Turkmenistan. A third is Daniel Ortega, the tropical dictator of Nicaragua.
The other is the elected president of a great, if battered, democracy. Jair
Bolsonaro’s undermining of his own government’s e orts to contain the virus
may mark the beginning of the end of his presidency.

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Since the new coronavirus was rst detected in Brazil in late February Mr
Bolsonaro, a former army captain with a fondness for military rulers, has made
light of it. Dismissing its e ects as “just a little dose of u”, he said “we’re going
to face the virus like a man, dammit, not like a little boy.” He added, helpfully:
“we’re all going to die one day.” In the 15 months since he became president,
Brazilians have become accustomed to his macho bravado and ignorance on
issues ranging from the conservation of the Amazon rainforest to education and
policing. But this time the damage is immediate and obvious: Mr Bolsonaro has
coupled de ant rhetoric with active sabotage of public health.

He claims to believe in “vertical isolation”, in the quarantining only of Brazilians

aged over 60 in order to limit damage to the economy. There are two problems
with this. Young people die of covid-19 (10% of those it has killed in Brazil are
under 60), and enforcement of such a quarantine would be impossible.

The governors of Brazil’s most important states have gone ahead and imposed
lockdowns using their own powers. Mr Bolsonaro has encouraged Brazilians to
ignore them. A man who fears betrayal and has a perpetual need to provoke, he
greeted with hugs and sel es supporters who attended a rally against Congress
on March 15th. He launched a campaign urging businesses to re-open and called
for a religious “fast and demonstration” to take place in churches on April 5th.
He has mused about decreeing, illegally, an end to the lockdowns. He has twice
l t ki hi h lth i i t L i H i M d tt
come close to sacking his own health minister, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, a
conservative doctor who publicly opposed the president’s call to loosen
restrictions. Mr Bolsonaro is seemingly jealous of the rising pro le of a minister
he claims “lacks humility”.

Even by his own standards, Mr Bolsonaro’s breach of his primary duty to protect
lives has gone too far. Much of the government is treating him like a di cult
relative who shows signs of insanity. Key ministers, including the cohort of
generals in the cabinet, as well as the speakers of both houses of Congress, have
given sometimes ostentatious support to Mr Mandetta, who has the public on
his side. A poll this month by Datafolha found 76% approval for the health
ministry’s handling of the virus, compared with 33% for Mr Bolsonaro’s
management of the crisis.

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Calls for Mr Bolsonaro’s resignation have mounted. They have come not just
from the left but also from some of his erstwhile supporters such as Janaina
Paschoal, a São Paulo state legislator whom he once considered as his running
mate. Saying he was guilty of “a crime against public health”, she added: “we
don’t have time for impeachment.”

There can be little doubt that the president’s conduct constitutionally merits
impeachment, a fate that befell two of his predecessors, Fernando Collor in 1992
and Dilma Rousse in 2016. But for now Mr Bolsonaro retains su cient public
support to survive. While polls found a majority favouring Ms Rousse ’s ousting
(for breaking the scal-responsibility law to win re-election), 59% told Datafolha
they don’t want Mr Bolsonaro to resign. Her approval rating fell to around 10%;
he retains the support of a third of voters. Few in Brasília believe that the country
wants or can a ord the distraction of impeachment while it is under siege from
covid-19.

Mr Bolsonaro is sustained by a small coterie of ideological zealots who include

his three sons, by the faith of many evangelical Protestants and by lack of
information about covid-19 among some Brazilians. The last two factors may
change as the virus ploughs its fatal furrow in the coming months. By April 8th
Brazil had su ered 14,049 con rmed cases and 688 dead. And the president may
t b bl t ti hi lf f bl f th i i t B hi
not be able to quarantine himself from blame for the economic impact. By his
recklessness with the lives of Brazilians, Mr Bolsonaro has forced the possibility
of his own departure onto the political agenda. It is likely to remain there after
the epidemic fades.

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This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline "A president who is
isolating himself"

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