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In Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro said he had " until December 2026 " to sign the Camões literary prize awarded to the leftist singer and novelist Chico Buarque. A case that spurred embarrassment from Portugal, co-organizer of the award, and revealed the political divides in Brazil, further accentuated since Bolsonaro came to power, nostalgic of the military dictatorship.
It is a story a priori anecdotal but that awakens the demons of the bloody military dictatorship that reigned over Brazil between 1964 and 1985. Famous singer and Brazilian writer, figure of the fight against the former junta in power, Chico Buarque s is congratulated on October 9 that President Jair Bolsonaro did not sign the awarding of a literary prize which had been awarded to him. " His non-signature is a second prize, " he said in a publication posted on his Instagram account.
Last May, Francisco Buarque de Holanda, better known under the name of Chico Buarque, won the prestigious Camões Award, which rewards Portuguese-language authors " whose work contributes development and recognition ". Traditionally, the Brazilian and Portuguese presidents attend the award of this prize, to which each country participates for 100,000 euros, contribution already paid by Brazil.
Support to Lula against nostalgia for the dictatorship
The question arises, writes the well-known Brazilian magazine Veja , whether Jair Bolsonaro, whom the observers are classifying on the far right, will really sign a reward for an artist whom he considers a political rival, who has never concealed his support for former far-left president Lula, to whom he went to visit his prison in Curitiba and whom he called for release.
Asked by the journalists the day before the release of Chico Buarque, the principal interested had played the astonishment. " There is a deadline? I have until December 31 , 2026 "to do so, said Jair Bolsonaro. This would imply that the current head of state, who came to Brazil in 2018, is re-elected for a second term in 2022 ... Faced with this attitude, Portugal has preferred to play diplomacy. The Portuguese Ministry of Culture has told our colleagues at RFI in Brazil that the prize-giving ceremony will finally take place in 2020, in Portugal, and not in Brazil.
A life between Rio and Paris
Best known as a singer, Chico Buarque has also made himself known as an author since the publication of his first book in 1974, Fazenda Modelo (" The model farm ", not translated into French). Followed by " When I'll be out of here " (2009) or " The German Brother " (Gallimard, 2014). But Chico Buarque is above all a committed artist whose musical career began precisely in 1964, the year of the military coup.
In 1968, he took part in the student protest, made prison, went to live in exile in France - he kept some ties - and in Italy. He eventually returned to Brazil in 1970 to continue his career, somehow under the dictatorship. This sometimes requires him to compose under a pseudonym. In 1973, his song Calice (" cale-se ", " shut up " in Portuguese), composed with Gilberto Gil and denouncing the role of the Church in the dictatorship, is thus censored. In the 1980s, he participated in the Diretas Ja movement, which helped put an end to the junta.
For his part, Jair Bolsonaro, a military professional, is one of the nostalgic of the dictatorship. Even before being elected, he did not hesitate to describe as a "hero" Colonel Brilhante Ustra, head of a torture center during the dictatorship. And on March 31, for the 55 years of the coup that brought the dictatorship to power in Brazil, he ordered the holding of commemorations in the barracks. Between the two men who oppose everything, the singer engaged on the left and the very rightful president of Brazil, the confrontation was therefore inevitable.
► (Re) listen: Geopolitics, the debate: Brazil Bolsonaro