Good morning! After anti-democratic protests, the left hops on the right-wing impeachment train. Truckers try to halt goods transportation. And the water crisis is only getting worse.
An impeachment inflection
Under normal circumstances, politics is already notable for creating strange bedfellows. Throw in an institutional crisis, and the alliances which can occur are even stranger. Yesterday, left-wing parties and unions decided to join the September 12 protests called by libertarian right-wing group MBL (the Free Brazil Movement).
- Congressman Kim Kataguiri, the MBL’s most prominent leader, said he wants to share the stage with people from across the political spectrum, “as long as their personal agendas take a backseat to the broader goal, which is to impeach President Jair Bolsonaro.”
- Mr. Kataguiri wants the movement to resemble Diretas Já, when politicians from the right and left joined forces in the 1980s to demand free presidential elections — creating the biggest rallies Brazil has ever seen.
- Even the Workers’ Party, which was until recently a sworn enemy of the MBL, declared support for the demonstration.
Why it matters. Anti-Bolsonaro protests have popped up here and there, but the lack of unity between different groups allowing for a massive show of force