A Far-Right Candidate Has Won the Brazilian Presidential Election

           A far-right candidate won the Brazilian presidential election today, obtaining a majority over the liberal party’s standard-bearer in a run-off election, the first one elected in Brazil since the military dictatorship ended in 1985 and the first in a major South American state in several decades, evoking fears of fascism as authoritarianism, populism and excessive nationalism are on the rise in the world.

Brazil’s leading center-left party’s original candidate, a previous president, was barred from standing in the election because of his conviction for corruption.  Another took his place as the liberal nominee.  A conservative is the current president, after the impeachment and removal of the prior center-left president from office who had succeeded the one who was convicted, but the center-right candidate did not advance to the run-off.  Corruption has tainted both the Brazilian center-left and the center-right, while there remains abject poverty in the growing power, despite excessive spending by liberal governments.  The far-right candidate campaigned against corruption and budget deficits and on a socially conservative platform.

            However, the incoming populist Brazilian President is openly misogynistic, bigoted, pro-dictatorship and disrespectful of human rights.  The similarities between him and the President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte (the “Filipino Trump”), who openly encourages extrajudicial killings, have been observed.  The far-right Brazilian incoming President is an admirer of Donald Trump and was supported by Trump’s former White Nationalist advisor.  

It will be up to the other Branches of the largest South American state’s government and the Brazilian people from across the political spectrum to be a check on their new head of state.  The center-right must root out corruption to gain trust as a more effective and legitimate opposition to liberalism than the far-right. 

            South American voters have turned away from the Left and the Socialist revolution of Venezuela’s late tyrant Hugo Chavez, as Argentina, Peru, and Chile have elected conservatives in place of liberals over the last two years.  However, the swing of the pendulum to the far-right in Brazil is ominous.  As Brazil is an emerging economic power, the markets will be shaken.  Its geopolitical significance is uncertain, except as a boost to excessive nationalism, which is based upon xenophobia or hatred of minorities.  

           May Brazilians defend their liberty and may Brazil be peaceful and prosperous.