I was unlucky enough to be living in Rio de Janeiro when Jair Bolsonaro, before he became Brazil’s president, was elected to Congress in 2014 with the most votes in the state’s history. Then, two years later, I was living in the US when Trump won the Republican primaries. This year, in Portugal, I am living a similar nightmare.
André Ventura, the local figurehead of the far Right, continues to gain ground at startling speed. After his party, Chega, received just 1.29% of the vote in 2019’s legislative elections, Ventura jumped to 12% in the presidential election of January this year.
On the American continent, it seemed easy to understand Bolsonaro and Trump’s electoral success. Brazil and the US both faced undeniable problems, and the two candidates provided simple, if racist and undemocratic answers. Bolsonaro was a strongman who proposed to crack down on the violence and crime that plagues Rio de Janeiro. Trump was a voice for the part of his country that blamed immigrants for taking their jobs.
