Advocates of Brazilian homeschooling organisations supported the attempted coup on 8 January that tried to topple the country’s newly elected leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, openDemocracy has found.
Some engaged in or praised anti-democratic discussions after the election last October, amplified misinformation and supported calls for a military coup. Others supported online attacks against supreme court justices. Some seem to have actually participated in the insurrection. Multiple social media posts were removed and some accounts were deactivated or made private after openDemocracy contacted the relevant individuals for comment.
Soon after the election, in which former president Jair Bolsonaro was narrowly defeated by Lula, Bolsonaro supporters alleged that Lula’s victory was a fraud, perpetrated by the supreme electoral court and its head, Alexandre de Moraes, allegedly to impose a communist dictatorship. The Bolsonaristas’ solution: overturn the results and reinstate Bolsonaro as president, by military intervention if necessary.
