Shots fired at Lula greatly disturb Brazil’s political battlefield

Brazil’s political environment is experiencing a process of intense radicalization, which began halfway through Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s first term as president. His administration was then hit by the Mensalão (monthly stipend) scandal – described as a scheme to bribe congressmen in exchange for legislative support.

This scandal came to light between 2005 and 2006, creating the necessary conditions for the rise of a discourse that has become progressively hateful towards the Workers’ Party, its leaders, and its supporters. For those who jumped on this bandwagon, criticizing corruption became almost synonymous with the criticism of left-leaning policies.

A revealing aspect of the radicalization of Workers’ Party adversaries (and, by extension, anti-left militants) was the creation of derogatory neologisms to describe members and supporters of the Workers’ Party, like “petralha” or “esquerdopata”.

Petralha comes from the merge of PT (the Workers’ Party’s acronym in Brazil) and the word Metralha, the Brazilian name for the Beagle Boys, a family clan of organized criminals who are constantly in the process of trying to rob Scrooge McDuck. It...