Tarcísio waves to Bolsonarism with hammer and God – 03/19/2023 – Politics

When Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) hit the Stock Exchange counter mercilessly, to celebrate the end of the auction for the northern section of the Rodoanel, he attempted to bludgeon the ill will against him nurtured by a portion of the most hardened Bolsonarism.

More gestures came in the same week. Terra Brasil Notícias, one of the oracles of Bolsonarist communication, reproduced the participation of the governor of São Paulo in the 143 years of the Fire Department and highlighted: “Tarcísio commands military ceremony personally”.

The head of the São Paulo Executive also signed into law a bill that made the March for Jesus, the biggest event on the continent’s evangelical calendar, an intangible cultural heritage of the state —an act promptly exalted by portals in the segment, such as Pleno News.

The last few days were read, by allies and foes alike, as a nod from the governor to the electorate most loyal to Jair Bolsonaro (PL), the group that lulled him to the Palácio dos Bandeirantes. The relationship was strained after Tarcísio issued signals that did not go down well with part of that base.

As in declaring, even before taking office, that he had never been a “root Bolsonarista”. Already in the chair, he posed more than once with President Lula (PT), enemy number one of the bloc, and signed a law that authorizes medical marijuana in the SUS in São Paulo, something controversial to say the least for a conservative wing that has an aversion to to any easing of access to cannabis.

The hammer blows he struck at B3 revived comparisons on social networks with the characters Thor, the Norse god who wields a hammer, and Chapolin Colorado, owner of the bionic sledgehammer. Deputy Carla Zambelli (PL-SP), who returned to defend Bolsonaro after making statements to the Sheet that made her disagree with the former president, shared on the internet a cartoon of the governor “Thorcísio” published in Revista Oeste, another virtual trench of conservatism.

Said Tarcísio as he handled the hammer: “People are still shy, but I’ll show you how it’s done”. With presidential hopes for 2026 on the radar, it still remains for him to show how to signal to a broader electorate without displeasing the base that cemented his victory last year.

Shy has been, so far, the reaction in Bolsonarist digital groups to the governor’s movements that allies interpret as a wink to the right.

Telegram got excited, but with restraint, with Tarcísio’s excitement about the Rodoanel auction, points out monitoring coordinated by Leonardo Nascimento, Letícia Cesarino and Paulo Fonseca with support from InternetLab.

The most shared messages about the episode on the main channels in favor of Bolsonaro add up to 20 mentions. “It seems little, but there are groups with hundreds of subscribers”, says Nascimento, a professor at the Federal University of Bahia.

One of them says: “Beat Tarcísio, hammer it! Imagine all the pressure he must be under and how hard it was to finally hit that hammer. May God bless you and give you a lot of strength to make São Paulo take off!!”.

A message congratulating him, posted by Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), boosted positive references to the governor in this digital ecosystem. For Nascimento, Tarcísio seems to be “strategically nodding to Bolsonarism guidelines to try to take the place of the ‘father of the horde'”.

São Paulo councilor Fernando Holiday (Republicans), who supported Tarcísio and Bolsonaro in 2022, did not detect in his right-wing bubble many public demonstrations of affection for the governor’s enthusiasm with the privatization of the Rodoanel extension. “I just saw him posting and the left criticizing,” he says, adding a laugh emoji.

According to Holiday, some Bolsonaro devotees are not very fond of any sign of engagement with the left, even on a republican level. Hence the implication with Tarcísio. “But that’s just a matter of maturing on the right. It was due to the lack of gestures like these that we ended up being labeled anti-democratic.”

The right, according to deputy Sóstenes Cavalcante (PL-RJ), former president of the evangelical group, “is in its infancy in Brazil” and will still “go through the natural maturation of politics”.

“The governor was a military man and has always been liberal in the economy, that is his essence”, says the congressman. “Who is it [conservador] he doesn’t need to prove it, just practice what he believes and defends.”

While more ideological ranks of Bolsonarism resist the governor, even labeling him a “betrayal”, behind the scenes of power, his name grows among the bets to beat the left in the next presidential election, especially if judicial issues make Bolsonaro ineligible.

For the apostle César Augusto, one of the evangelicals who marched with the former president in the failed campaign for re-election, he polishes Tarcísio’s biography with adjectives such as “daring” and “courageous”.

For the leader of the Fonte da Vida church, the governor is increasingly “occupying space that is vacant on the right and surfing a wave where there is no one.” It became “an option on the national scene to fight the left”.

In a note, Bandeirantes says that “all measures and decisions adopted by the current management are in line with the government plan and are aimed at promoting dialogue and development in order to ensure the dignity of all São Paulo citizens”.