Steve Bannon sees Bolsonaro strengthened with accusations – 03/28/2023 – Politics

The lawsuits that right-wing leaders like Jair Bolsonaro and Donald Trump are facing in court do not harm the future of the conservative movement and, on the contrary, only strengthen the accused, says Steve Bannon, ideologue of the global ultra-right.

Chief strategist of the White House at the beginning of the republican’s term and a stronghold of the radical right, Bannon, 69, defends Eduardo Bolsonaro as his father’s successor and says that the former president’s return to Brazil scheduled for this Thursday (30) will be “incredible”.

In an interview with Sheethe repeats the false allegations of election fraud and claims that the future of the populist right in the world is connected.

Convicted of contempt of the US Congress by disrespecting calls to testify in the commission that investigated the attack on the Capitol in 2021, Bannon praised on January 8 of this year the radicals in Brazil who attacked the three Powers in Brasilia and called them “freedom warriors” .

A Sheet he says that those who committed crimes should suffer the consequences of this, but he says that it is necessary to investigate whether they were not encouraged by federal agents.

Right-wing presidents in the United States and Brazil lost their re-election campaigns. My first question is… I disagree, I don’t think they lost. Trump didn’t lose in 2020 and Bolsonaro certainly didn’t lose in Brazil [não há indícios de fraude e as eleições nos dois casos foram consideradas limpas e justas].

Based on what Mr. say this? Lula has little popular support and you can tell by the amount of people who protested against the elections. It is obvious that there was theft in Brazil and it was probably more scandalous than with Trump. But that won’t matter. Trump will come back in 2024 and Bolsonaro will come back, so it will be a good lesson to show people how easily institutions can be corrupted against the will of the people.

Today Trump and Bolsonaro are out of power. What is the future of the right? It’s not the future, it’s the present, it’s more robust than ever. See Trump’s poll results, ahead of [governador da Flórida, Ron] DeSantis and Biden. Our movement is stronger every day. It’s the same with Bolsonaro. My only problem with Bolsonaro is that I don’t think he should have left the country and I’m very happy that he’s coming back.

Was it a bad strategy? My recommendation would be that he didn’t leave, but he did, he came to the US, he went to the CPAC [conferência da direita trumpista em Washington], gave a historic speech and moved the audience incredibly. And I think it will come back [ao Brasil] and it’s going to be amazing, he’s going to be re-elected president. I hope Lula doesn’t destroy Brazil’s economy by then.

How often does Mr. talk to the Bolsonaro family? I don’t want to say how often exactly, but I’m very close with Eduardo. He will be the president of Brazil one day.

How connected is the global right today? That’s one of the reasons why I dedicate myself so much to Europe, to Japan, I talk to pro-democracy groups in China, which is my main job today, we did the CPAC in Mexico. I dedicate myself so much to Brazil because we are very connected.

But we don’t hear from The Movement anymore [grupo lançado por Bannon em 2018 para unir a direita populista no mundo, com Eduardo Bolsonaro como representante na América do Sul]. There’s a lot going on behind the scenes. But we want to make sure we have a robust operation in specific countries. Populism and nationalism are country specific, you need to do what works in those countries. We are not like the Communist International, where everything is global and interconnected. We are connected because we think alike, but each country is different and that takes a lot of time.

But everyone knows each other and gets along well. Viktor Orbán in Hungary, [Marine] Le Pen in France, Nigel Farage [Reino Unido]Giorgia Meloni [primeira-ministra da Itália]the Bolsonaros, the Trumpist movement, nationalists in favor of [Narendra] Modi in India, the [Shinzo] Abbe in Japan.

But remember, it’s still a young movement. If you think of the left, they’ve been around for 80 years. The new right is a strong phenomenon over the last ten years and most of our time is spent working in domestic organizations.

Le Pen lost in France, right-wing candidates also lost recent elections in Colombia and Chile… We need to look at the direction we are heading. We are not going to win every election. Some we won, we came to power in Italy, and some we lost. The point is that the direction gets stronger every day. Le Pen is much stronger today. She lost the Presidency but basically gained control of Parliament. You can pick individual elections around the world where the left won. But the most important thing in a movement less than ten or 12 years old is to look at the direction we are taking. We are gaining grip every day.

Also we are right about the economy. The neoliberal and neoconservative world order [corrente da direita que teve seu auge nos EUA com George W. Bush] is collapsing and nobody sees it better than Brazil. Look at Lula’s policies, inflation and unemployment will get out of control.

Do you disagree with experts who point out that we are seeing a decline of the right? Completely disagree, it’s a leftist joke. Look what happens in France, look at Giorgia Meloni, look at Modi’s popularity, look at Trump. In the stolen election he had 74 million votes, and Biden didn’t even come close to that. Bolsonaro will return to Brazil in a resounding way. Look at the size of the protests. I’ve never seen crowds that size in my life. You had self-organized protests. They were the biggest protests in modern times [checagem do Projeto Comprova diz que não é possível afirmar isso] and the press was so scared they didn’t report it. And when Bolsonaro returns, everything will explode. He is enormously popular, Lula is incredibly unpopular.

But many people were arrested in Brazil because of January 8, as well as in the United States in 2021. Doesn’t this weaken the right-wing movement? First, no one should break the law. We know that on January 6 [nos EUA] there was tremendous encouragement from federal agents, but no one should break the law. But you are totally wrong. The movement on the right is more popular than ever. People are realizing now that the elites are destroying the economy. Look at America’s out-of-control inflation, the banking system on the brink of collapse. We are funding a war that people have no interest in, the Ukraine War. On January 6th and in Brazil people must not break the law but…

But Mr. called the protesters “freedom fighters”. Yes, they were freedom fighters. Who broke the law, broke the law. But it was a small portion of people compared to the hundreds of thousands who were there. Those who broke the law must suffer the consequences if it is proven that they were not instigated by federal agents. Lula is a transnational criminal in partnership with the Chinese Communist Party, he is a partner of the worst regime in modern history. Those people [que protestaram contra ele] are definitely freedom fighters.

Trump is facing possible indictment… All the lawsuits against Trump are a joke and he rises in the polls every day and raises more money with each one. So that’s not a problem. If he is indicted, he will have more power than ever. They won’t stop Trump in a legal battle, that’s impossible.

Bolsonaro also faces a series of problems in the Brazilian courts… Of course, the most corrupt institution in Brazil is the Supreme Court, that’s how the election was stolen. It is clear that Bolsonaro faces problems in court, but that does not matter.

Mr. was also indicted… I was convicted of contempt of Congress and am appealing. I have seven different appeals in court and I’m very proud of that. the committee [da Câmara que investigou o ataque] January 6th was a joke. It had no impact on the American people. And I stood up against it, said I wouldn’t play that game. They found me in contempt and that will be overturned in federal court.

But how will the right get back to power with so many problems in court? None of this has had any impact so far. It’s the opposite. People are seeing that it’s a shame. We’re raising more money, rising in the polls, and the right-wing press is more powerful than ever.

But in the midterms [eleições de meio de mandato, em 2022] the performance of the Republican Party was far from expected. Not an answer? We gained control of the House. That was big next to the money the Democrats had. We are changing the course of the country. We’ve lost some important races, but that’s always going to happen. The nation is taking another turn. And, incidentally, it was the right who took over the House, with Marjorie Taylor-Greene and [Matt] Gaetz [deputados da ultradireita americana]. Lawsuits have zero impact and only make us stronger, because people realize how absurd they are.

Mr. doesn’t like Ron DeSantis [adversário de Trump pela direita na corrida à Casa Branca no ano que vem]but… This is not true. I am a strong supporter of DeSantis as governor. I just think he should wait until 2028. Trump has won the White House twice, one of which was stolen from him, he is the legitimate president and he needs to be the candidate. And given the complexity of the global landscape, DeSantis lacks experience. It has been a disappointing campaign. He has shown that he is a neoliberal-neoconservative who is controlled by his campaign donors, Wall Street oligarchs. I don’t think he’s had a good campaign so far, but he’s a very good governor and he’s done great things. Trump will win the primary, period, and he will win the presidency, period.

If elected, will DeSantis connect with the global right as well? You will have to get involved. You’ll have to find the Bolsonaros, Le Pen, Giorgia Meloni and all those. Ron DeSantis doesn’t have a lot of international experience. To win in the United States, you have to be right-wing, you have to meet with Nigel Farage, Viktor Orbán, who is very revered in the United States, with the Bolsonaros, particularly with Eduardo, who is a revered figure here.

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X-ray | Steve Bannon, 69

One of the leading voices of the ultra-right in the world, he was chief strategist at the White House at the beginning of the Donald Trump administration. She is the host of the War Room podcast. In 2018 she launched The Movement, a group to connect populist right-wing leaders across the planet.