Joe Biden’s Election Could Have Major Consequences For Brazil’s President – NRK Urix – Foreign News & Documentaries

The Brazilian president has yet to congratulate the newly elected leader of the United States, Joe Biden, on the victory. Like other friends of Trump, Bolsonaro will await the legal aftermath of the US elections.

Hardly any top international executive has been a more enthusiastic supporter of Donald Trump than Jair Bolsonaro. And he has made no secret of who he cheered on during the US presidential election.

“I hope, with the will of God, I can be present during the inauguration of President Trump,” Bolsonaro said in a statement last month.

Katastrophe for Bolsonaro?

Noted Brazil expert Oliver Stuenkel believes that an electoral defeat for Trump is a disaster for Bolsonaro. In an article in Americas Quarterly he writes:

“Never in history has a Brazilian leader made the resemblance and friendship of an American president such an important element of his politics.”

Stuenkel believes that Trump’s support has been a prerequisite for Bolsonaro’s controversial environmental policy in the Amazon. And he notes that Joe Biden has advocated a much more critical attitude toward this policy:

“The demands of Europeans to combat deforestation of the Amazon are one thing,” he writes.

“But a US-European alliance with threats to financially isolate Brazil for its inability to protect the world’s largest rainforest is quite another,” he said. Stuenkel continues. He is a professor at the renowned Getulio Vargas Foundation in São Paulo.

A more moderate president?

Jair Bolsonaro remains faithful to his support for Donald Trump. And he is in close contact with his Secretary of State to follow developments in the United States. But in the political apparatus that surrounds it, there are now intense discussions about the course that lies ahead, reports the largest in Brazil. media house Globe.

According to the newspaper O Globo, the president’s advisers believe it would be prudent to follow a more moderate policy. Some believe it should get rid of strongly ideological right-wing populists like Chancellor Ernesto Araújo and Environment Minister Ricardo Salles.

Araújo had little experience in foreign policy when he got the job. He drew attention with statements such as “the fight against climate change is an international conspiracy of cultural Marxists.” But despite harsh criticism, both he and the Environment Minister have remained in office, probably because they are popular with Bolsonaro’s main voters.

Huge challenges

By New Years, Jair Bolsonaro is in the middle of his four-year term as president of Brazil. The two years have been a political rollercoaster of the weird. His popularity dropped dramatically shortly after his inauguration and hit rock bottom this spring. He then received fierce criticism for his handling of the corona pandemic.

But the disbursement of government financial aid to more than 60 million Brazilians reversed the trend. About half of voters now say they are happy with Bolsonaro as president.

But the challenges are enormous. Brazil is among the countries in the world most affected by the pandemic. Even if the numbers now drop, economic problems will affect the country for a long time.

And while speculation abounds about the consequences of the US elections, Brazil faces its own choice on Sunday. It is true that it is a local election, but it is an important test of how Brazilians view their president.