Jair Bolsonaro and the soldering iron of decline | EUROtoday

IIt is round midnight, on the evening of November 21 to 22, when Jair Bolsonaro takes a soldering iron and begins to dismantle his digital bracelet. Willingness to flee or paranoid delirium as he claims? The former president of Brazil, sentenced in September to 27 years in jail for tried coup d’état, initially assures that he acted “out of curiosity”, merely eager to “see how” the bracelet “was made inside”. Disconcertingly banal, this clarification contrasts with the seriousness of his motion and the results which adopted: his instant incarceration, precipitated by the disastrous initiatives of his personal son.

By calling a vigil in entrance of his father’s home for the night of November 22, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro in actual fact supplied Brazilian Federal Supreme Court decide Alexandre de Moraes with the right pretext to order preventive detention. Flávio claimed to summon his supporters “for freedom”. However, this initiative disadvantaged his father of his. “The summons transformed house arrest into prison detention,” writes Brazilian columnist Leonardo Sakamoto.

Defense technique or psychological collapse?

During his custody listening to, Bolsonaro, slightly than mentioning his “curiosity”, most popular to talk of “paranoia” and “hallucinations”. The man who led Brazil three years in the past now claims to undergo from psychological problems which might have pushed him to commit this act. This late revelation raises a query: is it a protection technique or an actual psychological breakdown? And to what extent does the household circle, supposed to guard him, contribute to his downfall?

The medical particulars supplied by Bolsonaro reinforce the paradox of his situation. He reported taking pregabalin, a medicine used to deal with anxiousness and neuropathic ache, in addition to sertraline, an antidepressant typically prescribed for anxiousness and depressive problems. These therapies recommend pre-existing psychological fragility, however their point out comes opportunely at a time when Bolsonaro should justify his habits in court docket. The former president additionally produced three medical certificates dated November 15, 4 days earlier than the incident. Between the technical clarification, the just about infantile clarification of “curiosity” and the evocation of paranoia, there may be both a slipshod improvisation in his protection or an actual psychological confusion.

The escape state of affairs

“Although the summons of demonstrators is disguised as a ‘vigil’ for the health of the accused Jair Messias Bolsonaro, this conduct indicates the repetition of the modus operandi of the criminal organization led by the said accused, in the sense of the use of criminal popular demonstrations with the aim of obtaining personal advantages”, considers decide Alexandre de Moraes. According to him, “the confusion caused by the demonstration called by his son” might have helped “guarantee the success of his escape”.

ALSO READ Lula-Bolsonaro: holy conflict in RioJair Bolsonaro’s home is in actual fact fifteen minutes from the embassy district of Brasília, notably of the United States and Argentina, two pleasant international locations. However, the previous president’s background works towards him. In February 2024, surrounded by authorized affairs, he remained secluded for 2 days on the Hungarian embassy in Brasilia. A draft software for asylum in Argentina was found on his cellphone. More lately, one among his family members, federal deputy Alexandre Ramagem, fled to Florida.

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“And, once again, Bolsonaro suffers from crazy plans created or executed by his sons,” notes Leonardo Sakamoto satirically. After Eduardo, who worsened his father’s state of affairs by transferring to the United States to encourage Donald Trump to sanction Brazil, it’s Flávio’s flip to precipitate incarceration.

Far from defending their father, the Bolsonaro sons look like the arsonists of his downfall. Because it was not but the time for the previous chief to be imprisoned for the execution of his sentence, the deadline for enchantment for his protection was nonetheless in progress. The arrest was not anticipated till the next week. Flávio Bolsonaro due to this fact wasted this chance. Today, Jair Bolsonaro is incarcerated in a person cell geared up with an air conditioner, a tv and a mini-fridge. He has loads of time to ponder his gesture, that of a former president tinkering with an digital bracelet in the course of the evening with a soldering iron.