'Jair Bolsonaro (without a party)' is how the press refers to the Brazilian president since November 2019 to indicate that he currently has no party affiliation. The ‘without a party', even if in parentheses, causes a sense of unease among supporters of the democratic party structure. And it materializes an ideological project that has set in motion a series of coordinated setbacks.
Jair Bolsonaro is without a party like the backward program 'School without Party'. Jair Bolsonaro is without a party like the demonstrators who chanted 'no political parties, no political flags' in the 2013 mass protests known as ‘June Journeys’. And finally, he is without a party like the military regime of 1964-1985, which banned multipartyism.
It is important to understand the dangers of having a president without a party. In fact, it is important to understand the 'Bolsonaro without a party' as a symptom of the weakening of democracy: that of the vilification of politics – a stance that helped Bolsonaro get elected in a context of increasing depoliticization.
