Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has hailed the “victory of democracy over authoritarianism”, one year on from the 8 January insurrection in Brasília in which supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro stormed government buildings in an attempt to topple the newly inaugurated leftist government.
Several hundred people gathered in the seat of Congress in Brasília on Monday afternoon for an event marking the first anniversary of what many see as the Brazilian version of the 6 January Capitol attack in the US. Leaders representing the three branches of government took to the stage under a screen emblazoned with the words “Democracy Unshaken” to celebrate the resilience of Brazilian democracy and unequivocally condemn the actions of the violent mob that rampaged through the capital a year ago after refusing to accept their leader’s electoral defeat.
Lula, who was flanked by the supreme court chief justice, Luís Roberto Barroso, and the senate president, Rodrigo Pacheco, swore that all those responsible would face justice in a short speech that avoided mentioning his far-right predecessor by name.
“There is no forgiveness for those who attack democracy,” said Lula.
Prosecutors have already charged more than 1,400 people for their involvement in the insurrection, including seven former military police chiefs who are due to go on trial in the supreme court next month. Thirty insurrectionists have been convicted by the supreme court, most receiving a lengthy sentence for attempted coup d’état.
But although investigators are now going after the financiers, so far only one suspect has been charged with organising some of the buses that brought the Bolsonaristas to Brasília. The masterminds remain unnamed and unpunished.
“A year on from the events we still have no clarity over who the intellectual authors of this coup are, nor clarity over everyone who financed it. A swift response on this is important, to allow the country to turn the page and move on,” said Luciana Santana, professor of political sciences at the Federal University of Alagoas.
In October, a congressional inquiry concluded that Bolsonaro – who repeatedly claimed the October 2022 election had been rigged and never formally conceded after his narrow loss to Lula – had engineered the “premeditated coup attempt”. But the congressional findings have no legal bearing, and the far-right politician remains under police investigation for his alleged role in inciting the insurrection.
He has separately been banned from running for political office until 2030, in two separate cases relating to his attempts to undermine trust in the electronic voting system.
Brazil remains deeply polarised despite the uncertainty over Bolsonaro’s political future. Although 89% of Brazilians say they disapprove of the 8 January invasions in a recent poll, more than 40% believe the former president holds no responsibility for the events, a number that has increased since last year.
Rightwing politicians who had put on a show of unity with Lula in the aftermath of the anti-democratic attacks chose to stay away from this Monday’s ceremony, including the São Paulo governor, Tarcísio de Freitas, who has been touted as a possible heir to the Bolsonarista vote in the next presidential elections. The powerful house speaker, Arthur Lira, a conservative lawmaker, cancelled his attendance at the last minute, reportedly citing family reasons.
The pro-Bolsonaro opposition has also stoked divisions by questioning the swift and firm legal response to the attack on Latin America’s largest democracy. Last week, a group of 30 conservative senators signed an open letter criticising the “excessive sentences” handed down to the rioters. One of the signatories, former vice-president Hamilton Mourão, has proposed a law to pardon the insurrectionists.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversees the 8 January cases in the supreme court as well as other investigations targeting radical Bolsonaro supporters, vehemently assured in his speech at the Democracy Unshaken ceremony that “all those who colluded in a cowardly way with the attack on democracy … will be duly investigated, tried and held responsible.”
