Monarchists hold positions in Brazilian government and rehabilitate ultraconservative Catholic group
In the year when the fall of the Monarchy in Brazil will complete its 130th anniversary, a member of the former Portuguese royal family felt at home visiting one of the most powerful organs of the Brazilian Republic - the National Congress.
Great-grandson of Princess Isabel (1846-1921), the monarchist leader Bertrand Maria Jose Pio Januario Miguel Gabriel Rafael Gonzaga of Orleans and Bragança had scheduled meetings with recently inaugurated parliamentarians.
In the office of federal deputy Carla Zambelli (Social Liberty Party, or PSL, same party as president Jair Bolsonaro), Dom Bertrand - as he is called by followers - was surrounded by a flag with the coat of arms of the Brazilian Empire, a bust of his great-great-grandfather Dom Pedro II, and a portrait of his brother Luiz Gastão, current head of the Imperial House, an organ that seeks to restore the monarchy in Brazil. He almost saw his nephew, the newly elected deputy Luiz Philippe de Orleans and Bragança (PSL), in the corridors.
"I was surprised, I found more openness than I expected," he says of the visit in February, when he also met with Senator Márcio Bittar (from Brazilian Democratic Movement, or MDB) and with federal deputies Paulo Martins (Social Christian Party, or PSC), Delegate Waldir (PSL), and Enrico Misasi (Green Party, or PV). The group composes the "monarchist bench" of Congress, according to enthusiasts of the movement.
In the same trip, Bertrand was received in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by its minister, Ernesto Araújo, and the presidential advisor for international affairs, Filipe Martins.
The monarchist says that some interlocutors have expressed "complete consonance" with their positions - which include opposition to gay marriage, the end of the demarcation of indigenous lands, and the prohibition of abortion under any circumstances.
The warm welcome to Bertrand reflects the advance of monarchism adherents in Brazilian State organs and the rehabilitation of one of the main exponents of the movement - the Brazilian Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property (TFP). Only men can integrate the organization (according to Bertrand, the activities of the institute, which include marches and trips through Brazil, "are not suitable for people of the fragile sex").
"When a person is elected, they worry a lot about the next election. A monarch does not have that concern: he only thinks about the country's good," argues Zambelli, who claims to keep the imperial symbols on her desk permanently.
The congresswoman advocates for the adoption of a parliamentary monarchy in Brazil, with elections to the Parliament and the return of the Orleans and Bragança familiy to the throne. In this scenario, Bertrand would be second in line to the king's post, behind his brother Luiz Gastão.
"The Republic broke a historic process and created an illegitimate regime coined by half a dozen military and intellectuals, without any support from the masses", says Congressman Paulo Martins.
Zambelli and Martins say, however, that there is still no political climate to discuss returning to the regime. "Before, it is necessary a movement of cultural rescue, of rescue of the true history of the monarchy, that the republican period took care to destroy", says Martins.
The influence of the monarchist movement is not restricted to the new Congress. Last week, a supporter of the idea, prosecutor Gilberto Callado de Oliveira, was appointed representative of civil society in the Inep (National Institute of Educational Studies Anísio Teixeira), body responsible for the ENEM (National High School Exam, kind of like Brazil's STAs).
The list of supporters of monarchism in the country's government includes the Minister of Education, Ricardo Velez [update: Velez has been sacked]. In 2014, he posted on Facebook that, if Brazil were a monarchy, "we would not be dealing with all this mess". "The monarch, long ago, would have dissolved the parliament and called new elections to renew the Congress," said Vélez.
Another who demonstrates affinity with the movement is the presidential advisor for international affairs, Filipe Martins. He released on Twitter a photo of his meeting with Bertrand in February, presenting him as "His Royal and Imperial Highness, Monsignor Bertrand of Orleans and Bragança."
Vélez and Martins were both appointed to the government by the writer Olavo de Carvalho, ideologue who has also defended the monarchy on several occasions. In 2017, he said in video on YouTube that, after the regime ended, "Brazil went from one coup to another, from revolution to revolution, and never stabilized again."
In another video, Olavo defined Bertrand de Orleans and Bragança as "the most patriotic Brazilian I've ever seen in my life, the guy who most studied the problems in Brazil, who is looking for solutions."
In addition to the old anti-communist ideals upon which the organization was founded in the 1960s, it began to address popular causes among modern conservative groups, such as combating so-called "gender ideology" in colleges; "the elimination of the ambiguous concept of 'slave labor'", "the interruption of any financial aid to the" Bolivarian "dictatorships"; and "the elimination of all socialist laws that persecute Brazilians with abusive taxes."
Today, according to Bertrand, the group mobilizes "hundreds" of people, among partners and volunteer collaborators.
For the historian Luis Foresti, who analyzed Oliveira's trajectory in his master's dissertation, the ideas of the TFP founder are present today in the speeches of several conservative thinkers and religious activists. One example, according to Foresti, is the use of the term "counterrevolution" to define the 1964 coup. "The idea of revolution as intrinsically bad is typical of the founder's thinking," he says.
Bertrand recognizes the favorable moment. "It's nice to be right-wing and conservative, and the left is inhibited," he says.
For him, Jair Bolsonaro "knew how to embody a Brazilian malaise with political correctness" and "interpret the aspiration of the Brazilians to be free of ties, of an interventionist and statist mentality influenced by socialists and Marxists, who dominated the Brazil and plundered the nation".
Opposition to agrarian reform has brought the organization closer to agribusiness in recent decades. One of the main interlocutors of the organization in government is the agronomist Evaristo de Miranda, an Embrapa researcher who makes frequent visits to the institute and is seen by ruralists as an ally.
Bertrand also praises changes in government stance towards the environment, such as restrictions on punishments for environmental violations.
In 2012, he launched the book "Environmentalist Psychosis", in which he claims to reveal "the backstage of ecoterrorism to establish an ecological, egalitarian, and anti-Christian religion". Opposing the vast majority of scientists who research the subject, the book challenges the studies that link human action to climate change.
Contrary to historians, Bertrand says that "there were practically no" indigenous people enslaved during Portuguese colonization. He further states that the Empire can not be held responsible for the enslavement of blacks - although 5 million Africans were brought to Brazil as slaves during the regime - and that the monarchy faced strong opposition in abolishing the practice.
For him, "the solution to the problem of Indians" was given by Emperor Dom João III to Tomé de Souza, governor-general of Brazil between 1549 and 1553: "We must catechize, give civilization and culture - do what the Church did over five centuries", says Bertrand.
For Bertrand, the Catholic Church lived a great moment in the Middle Ages, when it was confused with the State and founded the first hospitals, universities, and leprosariums in Europe.
Asked if he was defending the reunification between church and state, he said that "the only solution is the restoration of Christendom". "The spiritual sphere is not confused with the temporal sphere, but there must be an exchange of good offices between one and the other, like there was before".
For Bertrand, the French Revolution (1789) was a sad landmark for the West. The movement - inspired by the motto Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity - ended the absolutist monarchy in France and resulted in the execution of King Louis XVI.
Despite the motto, Bertand says that "there has never been less freedom, equality, and fraternity than in the French Revolution." "It was enough to be a suspect to be guillotined. Anyone who objected would go to the guillotine."
Bertrand says that the ideal of equality of the French revolutionaries, which was eventually incorporated by socialists and communists, caused great harm to the world.
"The beauty of society is not in equality, but in differences, which must be proportional, hierarchical, harmonious, and complementary, just like a symphony."
Source, translated, very summarized, and adapted by the blogger.
