Inside Brazil’s divided democracy
At the height of election season in Brazil, Newslaundry’s Manisha Pande travelled from a Bolsonaro rally in São Paulo to a left-wing bar in Rio de Janeiro to ask whether a country this divided can still talk to itself. Manisha was in Brazil following an invitation to attend the 10th piauí Journalism Festival in São Paulo.
At a September 7 rally in São Paulo, supporters were wary of cameras. Manu, a local journalist and Manisha’s guide, recalled a man at a Bolsonaro rally calling her a ‘Marxist’ and shouting at people to stop answering her questions. Maria, a retired domestic worker, wants Brazil to “move forward”, likes Donald Trump, and sees no threat to religion. Manu’s father votes for Bolsonaro, but her mother doesn’t.
In Rio, Choc Alencar, a five-time federal deputy and a member of the Socialism and Liberal Party, an alliance partner in the Lula government, traced Brazil’s patriarchy to four centuries of slavery. Clarice Chacon, a candidate from the same party and mother of a two-month-old baby, said women need “more rage”. Mustafa, a record store owner, insisted that art must be political, yet avoids politics with right-wing friends.
The report also examined the rise of evangelical Christianity and its pull on the Right, set against the Catholic liberation theology that shaped Lula’s Workers’ Party.
Artur Romeu, director of Reporters Without Borders’ Latin America bureau, explained how AI-generated “voters”, a deepfaked Jornal Nacional video, and other attacks on the electoral system muddy what is true, as journalists are labelled “enemies of society”. Journalism, he argued, is a method and not just another opinion.
But Brazil, it turns out, can still agree on the next song.
Watch the full report.
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