Maybe Brazil is experiencing the closing of a historical cycle

Apparently we are experiencing the closing of a cycle in Brazilian history: the cycle initiated with the “political opening” in 1979 and which resulted in the closing of the military period in 1985. This cycle was marked by the clash between the traditional economic and political oligarchies and civil society, with important achievements in terms of democracy and citizenship but which, strictly speaking, did not result in marked ruptures in the Brazilian historical class divorce. Indeed, the dominant political vector throughout these periods has been the hegemony of some kind of conservative pact.

I say this without losing sight of the role of the PT – Labour Party – and particularly of the Lula governments in the relaxation of this conservative pact, a historical role that, without constructing major ruptures, sought ways for a national understanding through which one could guarantee some social achievements yielding to the Preservation of rentier structures of the oligarchies.

This is a complex period marked by the narrative marker of the last years of the military dictatorship: the idea of a "slow, gradual and progressive opening". It is as if the whole New Republic – the republican period initiated with the 1988 Constitution – continues to follow this order, endorsed even by the PT, always seeking a national agreement.

What you see now is the rupture of this agreement. A rupture provoked by the political right, by the conservative thought and above all by the oligarchies that had broken with the pact considering that the concessions made to the popular classes were excessive.

Ultimately, the coup was not only given by the oligarchies on the PT government, it was given against the state, against the model agreed with the 1988 Constitution and that had begun to be constructed with the political opening, even if "slowly, gradual and progressive", in 1979.