Bolsonarism warms up gears at CPAC conference

Brazil’s former Infrastructure Minister under President Jair Bolsonaro and the far-right’s pick for the São Paulo 2022 governor’s election, Tarcísio de Freitas kicked off his speech on his knees at the main stage of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), which took place on July 11-12 in Campinas, some 99 kilometers from São Paulo.

“We cannot allow the left to return,” Mr. Freitas begged. “The left has horrendous discourse, which denies family values. And those who deny family values also deny Christ.” After his speech, Mr. Freitas was blessed by Magno Malta, an Evangelical preacher and former senator.

Mr. Freitas’s words help sum up what was Brazil’s third edition of CPAC: a space where the far-right Jair Bolsonaro administration can only do good, and where the harsh socioeconomic reality facing millions of Brazilians gets sugarcoated.

The Covid pandemic — which has killed a confirmed 668,000 people in Brazil — was treated as a footnote. In the luxury hotel hosting the event, participants were well within their rights not to wear face masks, but the rewriting of history surrounding such a severe health crisis came across as incongruous. 

Masks, as one participant told The Brazilian Report, are “leftist nonsense,” as are social distancing policies and vaccines. “Today, we are finally freed from the hoax that is Covid,” one panel speaker said. The World and Pan-American Health Organizations were accused of working in...