Analysis: "Political chaos actually overshadows the corona pandemic"

Former Health Minister Henrique Mandetta got fired after quarreling with Bolsonaro about how to handle the corona pandemic - replacement Nelson Teich resigns in protest of the president's crisis management. When Teich got the job as health minister, he was described as a Bolsonaro supporter and expected to be more benevolent to the president's line. Slowly but surely, however, Teich also ended up on a collision course with the president.

In recent days, the conflict has, among other things, been about Bolsonaro's demand that the malaria drug chloroquine be recommended against covid-19, despite it being a treatment with weak scientific support and serious side effects.

The political chaos in Brazil - even the Justice Minister resigned three weeks ago - is causing the corona pandemic to actually end up in the media shadow. It probably hasn't happened in any other country in the world. But the virus's progress gives cause for concern. The infectious curve in Brazil points steeply upwards and according to the latest figures there are now over 200,000 confirmed coronary cases and just over 14,000 have died from covid-19. At the same time, Brazilian media has questioned the official statistics and the dark figure is believed to be large.

So Teich resigns in protest. And the question is what the political chaos and absence of a unified strategy to face the corona pandemic means for the virus's continued progress in the world's fifth largest country. The World Health Organization WHO expresses concern about developments in Brazil and stresses the importance of clear guidelines from the authorities. The situation in Brazil is the opposite - Bolsonaro is in open conflict with the country's governors who have introduced social distancing measures against the president's will.

But instead of backing, Bolsonaro has sharpened his rhetoric. In a meeting with business leaders, he called the conflict with the country's governors a war and asked for help to increase the press for the economy to reopen. At a press conference on Thursday, the president said more people would die of hunger than the virus and that the Brazilian economy could crash completely if people are not allowed to work. And so he used Sweden as a positive example of a country that has not closed society.

The rapid economic collapse makes Bolsonaro increasingly desperate - the currency has fallen to a new bottom level this week, capital flight is extensive and according to a new forecast, Brazil's economy will shrink by almost eight percent.

The departure of Health Minister Teich has already caused panic protests in Brazil's big cities. According to recent opinion polls, Bolsonaro's support has fallen sharply during the corona crisis, although his way of lifting how corona strikes against the economy has actually increased the president's support somewhat in the poorest part of the population.

At the same time, signals are coming from the capital, Brasilia, that the departure of the Minister of Health increases the likelihood that Congress will start a national court process to dismiss Bolsonaro. The government's loudest critics will now claim with certainty that the president bears direct personal responsibility for the corona crisis in the country and that the number of deaths is skyrocketing.

It seems to be a perfect storm the Brazilian president has been in. And then in this text I have not even mentioned the defeated Justice Minister Sergio Moro's accusations that Bolsonaro was trying to steer the judiciary to stop criminal investigations against his sons.

Obviously, no one knows which aces the president still has in his shirt sleeve. But it is becoming increasingly difficult to see how Bolsonaro will be able to remain in the Planalto presidential term. The question of responsibility for the death toll during the corona crisis will persecute him for a long time.

And the ten thousand crown question right now is: Who will be Brazil's next Minister of Health? Perhaps the world's most difficult job right now.