Museum of Democracy will echo narrative about 8/1, but remains uncontested

The Ministry of Culture (MinC) wants to make it possible for next year to begin construction of the Museum of Democracy, a project that could serve to consecrate the narrative of the Lula government and the Federal Supreme Court about the acts of January 8, 2023. For now, opposition congressmen have not organized themselves to stop the construction.

The funding for the museum, estimated at R$40 million by the MinC, will come from the third version of the PT’s Growth Acceleration Program (PAC), launched in August 2023. The ministry also announced the location of the work, in the middle of the Esplanada dos Ministérios , on land next to the Claudio Santoro National Theater – which has been undergoing renovations for almost a decade.

“The aim is for it to be a civic, plural institution built in line with all those who support democracy”, stated the MinC, without going into detail about the criteria for gauging support for democracy. Judging by the website launched on the 8th by the MinC and the Brazilian Institute of Museums (Ibram) – a digital repository for the museum – the objective of the initiative is above all to condemn the attacks on the 8th and an emerging group of Brazilian citizens who MinC calls them “far-right radicals” without distinction.

Opposition parliamentarians criticized the initiative and condemned the Lula government’s attempt to monopolize the defense of democracy. For now, however, there is no movement to prevent the construction of the museum by Congress.

On social media, senator Hamilton Mourão (Republicanos-RS) was the first parliamentarian to criticize the idea. “R$40 million for the Museum of Democracy and the people without access to healthcare. This is Lula’s misgovernment,” he stated.

Representative Filipe Barros (PL-PR) also expressed his dissatisfaction: “Shocked out on the streets, Lula will transform democracy into a museum piece. Literally. The white elephant will cost R$40 million”, he said.

A People’s Gazette, other parliamentarians criticized the initiative, but reported that they are not yet organizing themselves to stop the construction. For deputy Sóstenes Cavalcante (PL-RJ), the best solution is to disclose the truth, instead of refuting the lie. “I understand that going against it is giving Ibope to the left. We will not fall for their provocation. We already defeated their narrative on social media on January 8th, and we will continue vaccinating our public against the narrative of the evil consortium”, he observes .

Senator Carlos Portinho (PL-RJ) sees the construction of the museum as a possible “ode to relative democracy”, but still doubts that the idea will be carried out. “Let’s wait. There are many lions a day. This lion, from what I heard, was just an advertisement. Let’s wait and see,” he says.

Senator Plínio Valério (PSDB-AM) also does not see, for now, the need for an initiative against the museum, but considers that the Lula government’s idea “makes it clear how aligned the Executive and Judiciary are.”

Representative Luiz Philippe de Orleans and Bragança (PL-SP) thinks it is a good idea to contest the construction of the museum, but says he is still studying how to do this. “First, there will be a formalization of the transfer of the land for construction; then, a competition will be launched to choose the architectural project; and only then will they open a tender for the work, which should only start in 2025. Tailor-made As everything becomes formalized, we will be able to know in more detail what to attack”, he explains.

Museum tends to be politically instrumentalized, says expert

For public administration specialist Rafael Leite, associate researcher at the Millenium Institute, a government should not make the decision alone to build a museum on a topic such as democracy. The problem worsens with the choice of location for this museum, on the Esplanada dos Ministérios.

“The Esplanada is one of the places that has the greatest symbolic value in the federal capital. And I worry that a government could unilaterally decide what to do with one of the few spaces left on the Esplanada”, he states.

In publicizing the concept of the museum, the government states that “the institutionalization of the Museum of Democracy must be guided by a participatory process of consultations with experts, representatives of collectives and entities recognized as being engaged in cultural and educational processes aimed at valuing democracy and human rights”. Leite views this promise with skepticism.

“They say they will open the discussion with collectives, human rights movements, but I have no doubt that the groups that will participate in these discussions are made up only of people who agree with the agenda that the government is proposing. The only way out would be Congress take the lead in this process”, he states.

The result of leaving a work like this in the hands of the federal government, according to him, will tend to be the political instrumentalization of the museum. “Depending on how it is done, it will be a project on the Esplanada in which each new government that arrives will try to print its narrative about what democracy is. This is very bad, because it only pollutes the discussion around what democracy is. “

He cites as an example of this instrumentalization the Space of Memory and Human Rights, in Buenos Aires, opened to remember the victims of the dictatorship in Argentina from 1976 to 1983. Precisely due to the lack of plurality in its conception, the Argentine museum ended up being used as a repository of narratives that Kirchnerism wanted to disseminate.