The European Union and Portugal at the forefront of the defense of democracy – Observer
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The argument has already been made in this space about the need for a European Union to prepare for the alliance between American conservatives and European populists, in order to anticipate and combat the anti-democratic and illiberal maneuvers that will result from this coalition. A main objective for these groups will be to cause as much misinformation and interruption of electoral acts for the European Parliament and the Presidency of the United States of America in 2024. However, before this goal, there are steps that will serve as an indication of what we cannot expect in the future. (for both sides). Another representation as November midterms for the United States Senate and House, the October presidential election in Brazil.
As explained here before, the groups on the sides of the Atlantic learn from each other how maneuvers that worked (and how they didn’t) in order to tune them and apply them again. Here in the Observer, Donald Trump started (and is starting) to discredit the results of alternatives, and, in the absence of success, the illicit maintenance of the White House. Jair Bolsonaro, in November 2018, made it known how much he wanted to copy the example of the President further north, praising the “brilliant work” that Trump was doing in the United States. Just as Trump said in September 2018 that he would not accept the result, elections are seen as losing. The then candidate for Vice, General Hamilton Mourão, came up with an idea of a coup d’état that the armed state was unable to carry out a coup d’état, as in the case of the problem of carrying out a coup d’état, the judicial system was unable to resolve itself. However, the election would fall to Bolsonaro and Mourão, and we were unfounded as to whether such warnings were, or were just the boast of politicians with little respect for democratic fundamentals.
In February this year, President Bolsonaro visited Budapest and Moscow. In Hungary, Bolsonaro mentioned, along with Órban, that the European country was like “the little brother” of Brazil, because of its populist, nationalist, xenophobic and homophobic policies. When in Russia (partner in BRICS, the association of emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) it was announced that both countries would intensify cooperation in the areas of defence, cybersecurity and technology (among others). Now that we are on the verge of the presidential election in October, the threats are back. Bolsonaro returns to agitate the final results, the ghost of not accepting the results, this time due to the mechanisms of the electoral act, with justifications, a priori, of fraud on a sufficient scale for the final results. Something check what Trump to do.
It is no accident that warning signs are raised in Washington. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont circulates a Resolution (apparently with the support of colleagues Tim Kaine of Virginia, former vice candidate with Hillary Clinton, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, veterans of international relations) that will defend the election results, which are not legitimate, determined as Jair Bolsonaro, as the defeated candidate, will not peacefully assign power to the winning candidate, the United States will not recognize the winning administration, the United States will not recognize the administration for undemocratic actions or by use of military force. Naturally, some nuances are obvious in this initiative on the part of Senator Sanders: because of his track record that supports politicians of the radical left, and this political resolution is also for “internal consumption”, because of the requests from the internal center that may arrive in 2024, when, or if, Republican candidates do not accept the results of free and fair election results.
This is a good time for the European Union, and Portugal in particular, alike. The European could vote, in September, on a Resolution with the same appearance as the Parliament that is being built in the American Senate, which happened with the Resolution on egalitarian as “Threats to the right to have an abortion: the possible reversal of the right to abortion by the Supreme Court of the United States”. Even more so because, at an economic level, Brazil is a privileged partner of the Union within the scope of the Mercosur agreement (despite the fact that the candidate Lula who agrees “is not valid” and that “needs to be renegotiated”).
And this finally brings us to Portugal. At the national government level, there are natural problems with taking a stand. However, there is recent precedent. When Minister of Appearances in Venezuela, the then Foreign Affairs Minister, Augusto Santos Silva, asked Nicolas Maduro to “access the transition of power” (through the International Contact Group on Venezuela), and in Porto he mentioned that it was “regrettable ” the way in which the discoveries took place”. However, this was a posteriori. This time we can show more proactivity and make Portugal’s (and the European Union’s) position understood earlier. The National Parliament also takes a stand, by voting on a Resolution along the same lines, presented by a parliamentarian in the democratic parties with a purpose in the Assembly (which, not even on purpose, has Augusto Santos Silva as its President). And yes, of course, there are the categories mentioned above Resolution: what is possible in bilateral relations between countries, in the Portuguese community in Brazil and in the future of political, economic and social relations? However, the question can be put in another way: we also want, Portuguese and Europeans, to be passive, inoperative and superfluous when it comes to warning pseudo-dictators and proto-authoritarians that we are doing what they want to do and that they are aware of the price. if they get it?