Publisher: A dark September for our democratic institutions?

The week begins with a high temperature and the following month promises to be a dark September for our democratic institutions, which are now significantly weakened in this struggle between the Executive and Judiciary powers. Today, the 23rd, twenty-two governors of the federated states are meeting in Brasília with the purpose of containing the spirits and putting out the fire - before it's too late - since the rope has already been stretched too far. The future is uncertain when litigants refuse to lay down their arms and this is the situation we find ourselves in right now. Readers who follow us know that the topic of democracy is widely discussed here, not without some pessimism on the part of this editor, especially because we know our level of institutional starvation, as a reflex produced by Portuguese colonization.

This institutional crisis we are facing is inopportune and deeply marked by nonsense. We would already have enough problems to worry about, such as the sanitary, social and economic crisis, which is throwing thousands of Brazilian citizens into poverty, begging for meat bones in butcher shops. Every economic crisis has its "emblems". This one, without a doubt, is from the Row of Bones, a Dantesque spectacle, difficult to follow. Sad and embarrassing for a country that is one of the biggest meat exporters in the world. Gone are the days when the poorest and most fragile outskirts of the favelas indulged in the "luxury" of a skirt steak on the roof, accompanied by some beer brewed with corn. But who cared? Today, even chicken wings aren't there present, as the other meats tend to increase in almost the same proportion, accompanying the rise in beef.

All government efforts should be focused on tackling these problems. The aggravation of a political and institutional crisis at a delicate moment like this could have extremely harmful consequences for our social fabric, which has already suffered so much. In fact - to be honest - there is no opportune moment for a political crisis. Much less at a time like this, as it would lead to a deepening of these problems. Thankfully, the most consequential political actors are trying to put out this fire, whether in their speeches and public meetings - such as the state governors - or through the seams of backstage, checking the temperature of the barracks.

But there are also, regrettably, those incendiary political actors, who try to promote chaos, which would, by this calculation, give rise to undesirable - at least for convinced Democrats - military interventions. The mobilizations that are being planned by more radical groups, for the month of September, on the occasion of the celebration of our independence, fit this profile. September promises to be a Black September, should these predictions come true. Sincerely? We do not understand how anyone can defend a non-democratic regime, which has limitations on their own individual and collective freedoms. Generally, its supporters are the first to feel the strong arm of authoritarianism or the State of Exception, as history has demonstrated in past experiences.