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An analysis that cannot capture where the left is and where the right is is not in a position to understand Brazil.
After all, what is the dividing line, to understand where the left and the right are. What is the criteria to define the two fields?
The current historical period is marked by the adoption, by capitalism, of the neoliberal model. The right has assumed its current model, it is a neoliberal force that focuses its action against the State, for economic deregulation, for free trade. Being right-wing today means embracing neoliberalism.
In this sense, where is the right, where is the left? A gallows, a right-wing government is a gallows and a neoliberal government. A leftist force and government, in turn, are an anti-neoliberal force and government.
Absurdity of those who practice demagoguery in the media, even questioning whether the current Brazilian government is left-wing. Or, if the left had died, Lula’s government and the PT would no longer be leftist.
If that were the case, they would not be able to distinguish between the PT governments and the PSDB governments, and now the far-right Bolsonaro governments. They lost the ability to differentiate right and left.
Neoliberal governments are characterized by the widespread privatization of companies. They directly oppose the State, even defining it as their central enemy. They promote free trade agreements with the United States.
For those who have lost perspective, governments and anti-neoliberal forces prioritize social policies, promote the strengthening of the State and integration processes, both regional and South-South.
In summary, the confrontation between neoliberalism and anti-neoliberalism characterizes our political period. There are details, partial aspects, but nothing changes this central confrontation.
Lula’s government is an anti-neoliberal government, with the difficulty that he was elected without a majority in Congress and inheriting a neoliberal Central Bank president, appointed by Bolsonaro.
This differentiates Lula’s third term from the others. Alliances are essential to be able to coexist with a Congress in which there is no majority. He has to live, at least for half of his term, with extremely high interest rates.
But nothing that wrongly characterizes his mandate, which is frontally anti-neoliberal and left-wing. Whoever loses this perspective loses the ability to understand contemporary Brazil.
Not even the right thinks that the left is dead. On the contrary. They accuse the left of having taken over Brazil and always wanting more.
So where do the articles on the Internet that say “the left is dead” come from? They are the type of topic that does not interest me, because it does not help me understand today’s Brazil or the left itself.
Who presides over Brazil today, with the essential alliances to not have a majority? Where is the left? It’s on the right?
Por Emir Sader
The opinions expressed in this section are the responsibility of the author and do not necessarily represent the thoughts of the newspaper El Clarín