Hello! In this week’s issue: The most important facts of the week. The president and Twitter. The agricultural lobby has plans for Bolsonaro’s Brazil
The week in review
- Bolsonaro. It was a rough week for President Jair Bolsonaro, who dealt with a number of self-inflicted image crises. On Tuesday, he tweeted a lewd video of two men performing sexual acts in public as a critique of Carnival. The tweet made headlines, sparking criticism that his ‘moral crusade’ could cost political support for his pension reform. Then, he said during a speech that “democracy and freedom only exist when the Armed Forces want them to.” In both cases, Mr. Bolsonaro was forced to give half-hearted apologies—which did little to improve his image.
- Internal war.The Ministry of Education fired—or demoted—four former students of Olavo de Carvalho, the “ideological guru” of Bolsonarism. That led Mr. Carvalho, a self-proclaimed philosopher, to turn his social media machine gun against the government, which “is being run by enemies.” This is yet another internal clash between the more fervently ideological backers of the president and the military wing—which is pragmatic and focused on the administration’s economic agenda.
- Diplomacy.The White...