Defense of democracy is a challenging debate – 08/03/2023 – Maria Hermínia Tavares

On January 8, the embarrassing defeat of the extreme right ratified, with interest and correction, what had been imposed on it at the polls in October of last year. This time, decisive was the firm and serene conduct of the government, along with the institutional reaction of Congress, the Federal Supreme Court and the command of the Armed Forces.

Still, it is unwise to underestimate the threat to democracy that the failed coup embodied. The extreme right is strong, organized and also rich. It has strong roots in different social groups and the aptitude to mobilize them in networks and take them to the streets. It also managed, as far as the eye can see, to rally the traditional conservative electorate, under the banner of anti-PTism.

This is why it makes perfect sense to keep the debate on how to defend the democratic system alive. The subject, with its many facets, represents an unprecedented challenge for Brazilians who want to preserve it.
The first aspect concerns the existence of legislation capable of providing means to face anti-democratic attacks, by defining them as political crimes and establishing procedures in order to deal with them. Here the challenge is to do the right thing without limiting fundamental rights.

In an enlightening debate, held a week ago by the Fernando Henrique Cardoso Foundation, law professors Helena Lobo da Costa, Alaor Leite and Oscar Vilhena Vieira explored the virtues, possibilities and risks of using criminal law to defend the system of freedoms.

They showed the importance of the recent Law for the Defense of the Democratic State of Law —which in 2021 replaced the old National Security Law— to deal with Bolsonarism’s attacks on electoral institutions and the invasion of the Praça dos Três Poderes.

In addition to criminal law, the professors drew attention to the importance of having an intelligence body dedicated to investigating the activities of extremist groups —an “Abin at the service of democracy”. Finally, they recalled that, under the current circumstances, there is no way to ignore the thorny issue of the role of platforms and social networks.

The second facet is that of political deradicalization, beyond the existence of legal limits to the action of extremes.

It implies the reconstitution of areas of convergence between forces situated in opposite positions of the political spectrum and, in the present case, the strengthening of leaders and movements of the right —and also of the center-right— committed to democracy and willing to conceive of their electoral future at a distance. of the radical right to which they have subordinated themselves since 2018.

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