One of the great mottos of the late Brazilian live-audience television host Chacrinha was, loosely translated, “Those who do not communicate, get hurt.” As cliché as this adage may be, the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva administration would do well to heed it.
It is not unfair to say that, while Lula emerged the winner against Jair Bolsonaro in a tightly contested election last year, he is being severely outmatched in the communications war. This can be put down to either Lula’s own missteps, an apparent lack of strategy to create a political narrative to present unpopular measures, or the fact that the far-right is better equipped to react online and on social media than the left.
The consequences of such a social media beating became clear last week when, after much online harassment and attempts to rewrite history, the Bolsonaro-linked opposition may have finally managed to score what it perceives as its major break this year: the creation of a congressional hearings committee on the January 8 riots — when hordes of far-right radicals stormed the buildings housing the three branches of government.
Footage from the presidential palace security cameras leaked to CNN Brasil showed a member of the Lula cabinet supposedly being, at best, complacent with the invaders. This forced his resignation and led the government to change its strategy and support the congressional probe.
As the raids in the government buildings were led, carried out and financed by die-hard supporters of Mr. Bolsonaro, only some very competent spin-doctoring would make the Lula administration, the victim, an accomplice of the failed attempted coup.
The episode underscores just how weak the government’s communication efforts have...
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