Artists and celebrities in Brazil have voiced outrage after an electoral judge ordered one of the country’s biggest music festivals to outlaw “political demonstrations” by performers after a legal challenge from President Jair Bolsonaro’s political party.
Lawyers representing Bolsonaro’s Liberal party made their petition to the supreme electoral court on Saturday after Brazil’s far-right leader was pilloried at this weekend’s Lollapalooza event by pop stars and rappers, including the British singer Marina.
“Fuck Bolsonaro. Fuck him. We are sick of this energy,” Marina told fans on Friday, at the start of the three-day gathering in São Paulo.
With political tensions increasing before Brazil’s October presidential election, Brazilian artists also voiced their fury at Bolsonaro’s far-right administration, which has overseen a historic attack on the environment and catastrophically mishandled a Covid pandemic that has killed more than 650,000 citizens.
The pop sensation Pabllo Vittar chanted “Get out Bolsonaro!” and danced into the crowd clutching a red towel featuring an image of the leftist former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who polls suggest will beat Bolsonaro in October.
The rapper Emicida urged teenagers to register to vote, before shouting the earthy rallying cry of the opposition movement: “Ei Bolsonaro, vai tomar no cu,” which politely translates as “Bolsonaro get stuffed”.
Liberal party lawyers claimed the actions of Vittar and Marina constituted “premature campaigning” and demanded such “blatant” pro-Lula propaganda and anti-Bolsonaro slurs be stopped.
In his ruling, the electoral justice Raul Araújo agreed that such behaviour constituted “political-electoral propaganda”. Any further “ostentatious and extemporaneous” electioneering from musicians performing at Lollapalooza was forbidden, with a 50,000 reais fine (about £8,000) for any violations.
In the backlash, public figures denounced what many called an act of censorship.
“This is authoritarianism. This is fear … we will not and we must not remain silent,” said the progressive church leader Henrique Vieira, who performed with Emicida at Lollapalooza.
Augusto de Arruda Botelho, a lawyer, tweeted: “As well as setting an extraordinarily dangerous precedent, this is utterly illegal. Dark times.” And the singer-songwriter Zélia Duncan said: “No one silences the voice of the people,”
The pop star Anitta mocked the ruling. “50 thousand? Darn … one less bag,” she shrugged, before tweeting sarcastically: “GET OUT BOLSONAROOOOO. Does this law also apply outside Brazil? Cos I only play international festivals.”
One of Brazil’s most famous television presenters, Luciano Huck, said the decision harked back to Brazil’s two-decade military dictatorship, when a hardline decree known as the Institutional Act No 5 outlawed freedom of expression and assembly, and authorised closing congress.
“At a music festival, it’s the audience who decide whether they boo or applaud the opinion of an artist who is on stage, not the supreme electoral court,” Huck tweeted.
The outcry came on a weekend when Brazil’s anxiously awaited election race – which some fear could see acts of political violence – finally came to life. Leading members of Brazil’s left gathered at a music festival in Niterói, a city near Rio, on Saturday to celebrate the 100th birthday of the Communist party of Brazil and hail Lula as the politician capable of ending what one speaker called “the Bolsonaro nightmare”.
Addressing thousands of flag-waving supporters on the spectacular shores ofGuanabara Bay, Lula declared: “Brace yourself, Brazil, because we are going to fix this country.”
Criticising Bolsonaro’s “psychopathic behaviour”, he said: “You can be certain that it will be hard, but we will win and we will do everything we possibly can to fix this country and make the people smile once again.”
On Sunday Bolsonaro also seemed in campaign mode as he appeared before hundreds of supporters in the capital, Brasília, to declare himself ready to fight for a second term.
“Our enemy isn’t external, it’s internal. This fight isn’t left versus right. It’s a fight of good versus evil – and we will win this fight,” vowed the former army captain, who won the election in 2018 after Lula was controversially banned from running and jailed.
Bolsonaro, 67, was hailed as “the captain of the people” as he took to the stage with a ballpoint pen tucked into his shirt pocket in an apparent attempt to burnish his populist credentials. Several followers wore caps reading “Bolsonaro 2022”.
The host, Cuiabano Lima, likened leftists to the devil and compared Bolsonaro to Jesus. “This man is the chosen one … and we must push onwards with this because Brazil deserves it and Brazil believes,” he said.
Many opposition politicians wondered why the declarations of leftist artists were considered electioneering while such pro-Bolsonaro pronouncements were not. Earlier this year the judge behind Sunday’s decision reportedly overruled similar petitions against pro-Bolsonaro billboards on the grounds that it could not be proved the president knew of their existence.
