In Brasilia, Sunday, May 17, the thunderstorm thundering in the distance worries Jair Bolsonaro's sympathizers much less than the communist threat hanging over the country. Thousands of activists came to cheer on the Brazilian president. In a simple blue polo shirt, and now wearing a mask for any occasion - a novelty -, the Head of State descends the ramp of the Planalto, the presidential palace, and comes to greet them. A wave of joy seizes the crowd. "He is our president, the only one who can deliver us from this comunavirus!" Shouts a woman. Without a mask, at 68, Dona Regina broadcast the event live on her Facebook profile. She is wearing the presidential campaign t-shirt, with the slogan "My party is Brazil" nibbled by a red spot, symbol of the knife attack suffered by Jair Bolsonaro during the campaign, September 6, 2018 .

Most without masks, these demonstrators are convinced that the new coronavirus will do more harm to the economy than to the health of their country. And yet, the same day, Brazil crossed the sadly symbolic bar of 15,000 deaths due to Covid-19.

"Comunavirus" and "dicta-governors"

The "comunavirus" is a buzzword in these gatherings. Even if the majority of these sympathizers do not deny the existence of the coronavirus and the dangers of the pandemic, for them, an even stronger evil is eating away at the country. An evil which prevents the "good Brazilians" from going out into the streets, from being able to work and reopening the shops closed by the "dicta-governors" of the States. And this evil, according to them, is the Communists. Hear, everyone who doesn't support Jair Bolsonaro.

>> See: "Populism and pandemic: the Brazilian shock"

As the Brazilian president lost popularity - 39% support now - his supporters became more radical. There are Brazilians from all over the country, by car, by bus and even for some, on foot! They camp on the esplanade of the ministries in front of the Congress, to support their president.

This is the case with Dona Regina. Originally from Rio, ultra-conservative and anti-abortion, this retired public servant says she experienced a revelation thanks to Jair Bolsonaro. "It represents everything we expected in Brazil. We don't deny the virus, we know it exists, but Brazil will starve if we stop people from working. I don't work anymore but I demonstrate for my daughter !" A girl worried, she said, to have seen her diabetic and cardiac mother travel 1,160 km by bus and participate in these meetings, which are now weekly in front of the Planalto. Dona Regina has been sleeping in a house loaned by a sympathizer in Brasilia for two weeks.

The others, mostly former military paratroopers, from the same regiment as Captain Jair Bolsonaro, sleep in tents, in a makeshift camp at the foot of the Ministry of Health. Donations pour in every day: passers-by and officials from surrounding ministries come to bring them food, water and participate in organized barbecues.

The press in the viewfinder

In front of the presidential palace, in the homogeneous crowd dressed in yellow and green, the colors of the national flag, not all share the same objectives: a handful of army veterans defend a military intervention to help Jair Bolsonaro to better govern, when others, fathers and mothers, ask for the resignation of the judges of the Supreme Court, accused of obstructing the measures taken by their president.

Supporter of vertical confinement, that is to say only the elderly or at risk, since the beginning of the pandemic, Jair Bolsonaro accuses the judiciary, the legislative power and the governors of the States of having signed the death of the Brazilian economy by passing measures to contain the population and forcing non-essential businesses to close.

Reasoned arguments are often lost in cries of conjecture: "You, the press on the left!", "Jair Bolsonaro is an envoy of God, he will protect him!" ... The photographers present were just saved with a few nudges by an improvised mass.

Many accuse the press and the private television channel Globo of orchestrating a dismissal campaign against Jair Bolsonaro. The slogan "Globo Lixo" ("Globo junk") has become their rallying cry. A mantra constantly repeated on the right social networks, and in particular the Instagram account of the famous pastor Silas Malafaia. Ardent defender of the president, he posts every day a new video dissecting the "fake news" relayed, according to him, by Globo against Jair Bolsonaro. Last comments exchanged on these groups on the right: some deaths have been intentionally classified Covid-19 to inflate the figures.

>> In Bolsonaro's Brazil, the "empty coffins" theory wants to minimize the Covid-19 pandemic

"Only God will deliver us from evil"

In this war of ideas, religion has an important power in Brazil. The majority of evangelicals and their powerful lobby in Congress defend the president. In Rio, in the shadow of Silas Malafaia, many pastors continue to preach in their churches, defying the prohibitions on assembly. This is the case of Cristina, pastor of the Church of the power of God on the heights of Penha, a favela in the northern area of ​​Rio.

Cristina is convinced that Covid-19 is a punishment from God, comparing the new coronavirus to the seven plagues of Egypt. A curse, a spell cast by the Chinese enemy to also condemn to death the soybean exports of the country, flagship of the Brazilian economy. "Only God will deliver us from evil, it is enough to pray hard, look at me, I did not have the virus, whereas those which had it, I am sure, did not appeal enough to God to save them. " A word that spreads quickly in these very believing neighborhoods, where we sometimes also compare Jair Bolsonaro to a messiah, his middle name by the way.

The pastor, who is also a technically unemployed entrepreneur, is not without a contradiction: she remains silent when informed that it was the Congress, and not Jair Bolsonaro, who voted for the release of the pension urgency that she perceives. A hundred euros monthly for the Brazilians most affected by the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus. In addition, its Church, very powerful in Brazil, holds agricultural land in the interior of the country. There, the head of the congregation is convinced that he is growing a seed there that will cure Covid-19. He wants to sell it between 500 and 1,000 reais (between 80 and 160 euros). "I will go to Brasilia to give some to the president, enthuses Cristina. I am convinced that he can use it to save the Brazilians!"

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