Conservative groups in Minas seek social and political protagonism

In Belo Horizonte (MG), the campaign for Guardian Council elections continue, contrary to the rest of the country, where the process has already been concluded. In the capital of Minas Gerais, the result was annulled on the grounds of divergence in the number of votes. At the request of the Public Defender’s Office of Minas Gerais, which received reports of slowness, queues and interruptions in the voting process, the city hall announced new elections, scheduled for next Sunday (3).

In the midst of this turbulent period, one point draws attention: the intense participation of conservative groups in the mobilization for candidates linked to these movements and the significant vote obtained by these candidates.

If the elections had been valid, all seven regions of Belo Horizonte would have conservatives within the Guardianship Council.

The growth in the mobilization of conservative groups in Belo Horizonte is not new. Several institutions have worked to disseminate values ​​linked to conservative agendas, outside party politics, with the aim of creating educational and cultural bases. These movements began to emerge more explicitly in the middle of the last decade, as mentioned by some of the precursors who worked intensely to prevent the education plans of the Union, states and municipalities from including topics related to gender ideology. O National Education Plan it was approved in 2014, but there was still a battle to be faced in the City Councils to prevent the issue from being included in municipal plans.

It was at that time that Luciana Haas began to get involved with the topic. Pedagogue and mother of three children, she says that the demonstrations for impeachment of former president Dilma Rousseff (PT) brought together people with common interests, who began to take advantage of the conservative activism that emerged to address other relevant issues, having realized how the left acted to impose their agendas. “We found out that the (BH Municipal) Chamber was having discussions that would be important for us to get involved. So we went to participate and, when we got there, we saw that there was a very strong, very well-trained activist group defending these gender ideology issues in education.”

Luciana and other people with the same vision began studying how to get involved in discussions within the Minas Gerais municipal legislature, with the aim of mobilizing, in turn, more people. “It was very interesting, because at that moment, in Belo Horizonte, something was formed that we had never seen before, which was a gathering of Catholic, evangelical, spiritualist and even non-religious people during the discussion of the plan. And we formed the State Family Action Network.”

The group that Luciana mentions worked throughout the state, collaborating in popular mobilization and providing technical guidance to councilors. “We guided parliamentarians not only in Belo Horizonte, but also throughout the state, in relation to this issue”, she says. According to a survey by the network itself, proposals for gender ideology in municipal plans were blocked in 85% of the cities in which it operated.

“Mães Direitas” creates study group and book club

From this point on, activities intensified, in the wake of Jair Bolsonaro’s (PL) pre-candidacy for the 2018 Presidency. At the same time, there was concern among people involved in expand the theoretical framework for discussions of important topics at the base. It was then that the group emerged “Right Mothers”. Initially, a Facebook group that migrated to WhatsApp, made up mostly of mothers who began to realize that there was something wrong with their children’s education.

Claudia Diniz, one of the founders and coordinators of the group, says that, from the virtual environment, the organization moved to more intense street movements, especially after the start of the pandemic, when families evaluated the problems in education even more clearly. “We understood that we had to act in a more objective way, we no longer had anyone else to turn to”, she comments.

The street mobilizations and demands to the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary powers strengthened the group, which continues its activism and set up study groups and book clubs to share knowledge on topics related to family, intellectual training, philosophy and history. “We decided to leave the sofa in our home to act in our society, because we are not satisfied with things as they are, our children are being affected in a negative way from our point of view. They are being bombarded with information and values ​​that are not in line with what we have. So there is no point in waiting for a solution from outside, we need to strengthen them and act socially in whatever is possible to protect them”, reinforces Cláudia.

In another aspect, Luciana, Cláudia and a group made up of parents and professionals from different areas organized themselves to found the Guardians of Childhood and Youth Association. The embryo of the “Guardians”, as the group is called, emerged during the pandemic, in 2021, when they began a mobilization for the reopening of schools in the capital of Minas Gerais and sought support from parliamentarians for the cause.

At the time, 15 state deputies demonstrated for the opening of schools in BH, which was one of the capitals with the longest period of closed schools in the country. After this movement, it became clear that the work was just beginning and the idea of ​​the association grew stronger. “Classes returned after a while and people asked us if it (the movement) was over. Then we started to develop the idea of ​​forming a legal entity and we started working in this direction to create a committed group of people”, says Luciana, who is the president of the association.

With one year of formalization completed in June 2023, the Guardians work on several fronts to collaborate in defending the rights of children, young people and families. It includes actions developed in 56 cities in all regions of the country and holds weekly meetings to discuss topics related to education, training of children and adolescents and families. On November 25, the group held a first congress, called “Educação em xeque”, which was attended by names such as José Sepulveda, Jean-Marie Lambert, Ludmila Lins Grilo and Gabriel Mendes. The central theme was the necessary change in Brazilian education, defending that the country does not bow to agendas imposed by international organizations. According to the organizers, more than 170 people participated in the event.

The “Mães Direitas” Group chose not to formalize itself, but remains active and has centers in all states in the South and Southeast, as well as several states in the North, Northeast and Central-West regions. In August, they held their second seminar, with the participation of some influential names in the conservative scene, such as the journalist Barbara Destefanifrom the “Te Updatei” channel, Karen Nery It is Ana Paula Henkel.

For Luciana, the Guardians are already bearing fruit in raising awareness of families’ rights over their children. “We feel that more and more parents are becoming informed about their rights, that we are managing to mobilize people to demand, to take up space. It’s also about doing this awareness work.” Claudia assesses that this is a long-term job. “My son is 18 years old, thank God he is well formed, but I’m not just worried about him. I’m also worried about society, where he lives, where he will raise his children. This is a vision of all of us, you know? It’s not just for us. It’s for society in general.”

In politics, conservatives guide debates and nominate names to contest elections

Conservatives in BH have gained prominence in politics, not only guiding the debate, but proposing names to stand in municipal elections. An example is Join Augustoone of the founders of Values ​​Movement for Brazil (Mova), which has been working since 2019 to disseminate ideas in defense of life and the family.

According to Uner Augusto, Mova emerged to offer political training to people who are in the movement and create strategies so that political action has more results. “Many groups simply hold street demonstrations, but these are dispersed demonstrations, which generate little political result.”

Uner is one of the coordinators of Movement Expansion Center and believes that the right needs to improve its political strategy. “We often see the right making noise on social media and we see superficial engagement in demonstrations and they don’t win the battles”, he comments. Despite being small, Mova has some networks spread across the state of Minas Gerais and has already been sought out by people from Rio Grande do Sul, Goiás, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

He also points to the BH Guardianship Council elections as a victory. “The Guardianship Council is one of the first stories we have. With a little bit of organization, a little bit of strategy, it was possible for us to make a lot of noise”, says Uner, highlighting that all we need to do is publicize it in the best way possible to reach and mobilize the public that yearns for social change.

Conservatism is a philosophical current that defends the maintenance of traditional social institutions, based on values ​​such as the defense of life, family and freedom. Uner points out that these are expensive values ​​for most Brazilians. “These principles of liberty, life and family are universally accepted principles, they are the fundamental principles of natural law and they are also the basis of the movement,” he says.

With its awareness-raising work, Mova reaps the benefits of greater political action. Uner was elected first substitute councilor in 2020 in Belo Horizonte, and took up a seat in the Chamber for 76 days, when the incumbent, Nikolas Ferreira, left the municipal Legislature to become a federal deputy. There was, however, a process that caused the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) to revoke the PRTB ticket, the party for which Nikolas and Uner contested the 2020 election, for non-compliance with the gender quota.

Uner saw the experience as positive, as it showed a way of acting that could serve as an example for conservative politicians in the city. “The candidacy came as a kind of opportunity for us to publicize the movement, which was our objective. We wanted to launch a new, right-wing candidacy that had a profile that was highly committed to the principle of conservative values, but that at the same time had a social concern and technical competence, because on the right we observed that there were many well-intentioned people, but few trained and with little technical capacity”.

Conservatives’ focus this week is on the election for the Guardianship Council in BH

In the coming days, the focus of the actions of the movements in Belo Horizonte is to elect as many guardianship counselors as possible, since, according to conservative leaders, the performance of professionals designated for this role is often not consistent with protection guidelines. to children and adolescents.

Activists mobilized to form candidates and publicize the names of those who passed through the movements. “More than transmitting any ideological issue or taking an ideological position, we want guardianship counselors who know the ECA (Child and Adolescent Statute), children’s rights and can make good use of this, and not persecute families or seek to modify concepts. here and there, since they are in a prominent position, a position that goes inside people’s homes. They have great power”, ponders Cláudia.

The new elections for the Guardianship Council will take place next Sunday (3), with the expectation that the process will attract an even greater participation than the previous vote. The city of Minas Gerais capital increased the number of voting locations, based on the high demand from the annulled election.