Jair Bolsonaro's tenure as the 38th president of Brazil began with his inauguration on 1 January 2019, and ended on 1 January 2023. Bolsonaro took office following his victory in the 2018 general election, defeating Fernando Haddad. His presidency ended after one term in office, following his defeat in the 2022 general election to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. In the years Brazil has been a democracy since 1985, Bolsonaro became the first president to lose an election as an incumbent.
His government was characterized by the strong presence of ministers with a military background, international alignment with the populist right and autocratic leaders,"", BBC Brasil, accessed in 20 April 2023."Governo Bolsonaro usa fé cristã como eixo de política externa". Revista Exame, accessed in 20 April 2020. and was recognized for his anti-environmental,"'A boiada passou e corre o risco de passar de novo': as preocupações de ambientalistas um ano após reunião ministerial de Bolsonaro", BBC Brasil, accessed in 15 April 2022."A Amazônia e o antiambientalismo de resultados", Le Monde Diplomatique, accessed in 15 April 2022. anti-indigenous people"O governo Bolsonaro e o anticonstitucionalismo contra os povos indígenas", Le Monde Diplomatique, accessed in 16 April 2022."Os 5 principais pontos de conflito entre governo Bolsonaro e indígenas", BBC Brasil, accessed in 16 April 2022. and pro gun policies."Brasil triplica registro de armas novas durante o governo Bolsonaro", Revista Veja, accessed in 21 April 2022."Desde início do governo, Bolsonaro mudou 31 vezes a política de armas no Brasil", CNN Brasil, accessed in 21 April 2022. He was also responsible for a broad dismantling of cultural,"Política Cultural do governo Bolsonaro". Assembleia Legislativa de Minas Gerais, accessed in 5 February 2020Vilela, Soraia. "Após desmonte sob Bolsonaro, setor cultural espera retomada". Deutsche Welle Brasil, 29/11/2022 scientific and educational government programmes,"O conturbado legado de Bolsonaro para ciência, saúde e meio ambiente". Sociedade Brasileira para o Progresso da Ciência, 28/09/2022Santiago, Abinoan. "Cortes de verbas, atritos e 5G: o legado do governo Bolsonaro na ciência".Marques, Luíz. "A ciência versus Bolsonaro". Jornal da Unicamp, 23/04/2019 in addition to promoting repeated attacks on democratic institutionsMello, Igor. "Bolsonaro ameaçou democracia com ataques ao STF e às eleições, diz ONG HRW". UOL, 13/01/2022Jiménez, Carla. "Ex-presidentes e políticos de 26 países fazem alerta sobre insurreição de Bolsonaro". El País Brasil, 06/09/2021 and spreading fake news."Como funciona a fábrica de fake news de Bolsonaro", Diário de Notícias, accessed in 7 March 2023. His government was responsible for a significant reduction in bureaucracy and modernization of public systems, with the fast-paced digitization of federal public services, through the creation of the digital platform "gov.br". Bolsonaro also sanctioned the Economic Freedom Act, reducing bureaucracy in economic activities and facilitating the opening and operation of businesses throughout the country, which proved very beneficial, especially for small companies.
During his administration crime dropped across the country"O que explica a redução de homicídios no Brasil?", El País, accessed in 22 April 2022. and unemployment rates slowly fell,"Taxa de desemprego recua para 8,3% até outubro, menor nível desde 2014", Folha de S.Paulo, accessed in 20 April 2023. with the Brazilian GDP showing a moderate growth rate, averaging 1.5% per year.Sarlinger, Giuliana. "PIB da era Bolsonaro cresce menos que o dos governos FHC, Lula e Temer". UOL, 02/12/2022 At the same time, job insecurity, inflation"Inflação no governo Bolsonaro atinge o maior patamar para um mandato desde a primeira gestão de Dilma", G1, accessed in 7 March 2023. and hunger increased,"Retorno do Brasil ao Mapa da Fome da ONU preocupa senadores e estudiosos", Agência Senado, accessed in 7 March 2023. while per capita income, social inequality and poverty reached its worst levels since 2012."A trajetória de sete indicadores econômicos sob Bolsonaro" Deutsche Welle, accessed in 20 April 2023.
Background
Bolsonaro, at the time of his election, was a 27-year member of Congress; his victory has been credited to voter anger at the political class over years of corruption in politics, economic recession, and a surge in violent crime. According to sociologist Clara Araújo, "the dissatisfaction over the economic crisis, it seems to me, was channeled along with a discourse about conservative morals". The economy of Brazil was recovering from crisis, with an unemployment rate of 12 percent at the time of the election, double that of five years prior. The crisis was caused by, among other factors, weak commodity prices; events revealed underlying weaknesses in the economy, which include poor infrastructure, excessive bureaucracy, an inefficient tax system, and corruption.
Cabinet and appointments
On 11 October 2018, days before his election victory, Bolsonaro had already announced DEM congressman Onyx Lorenzoni as the future chief of staff in his cabinet. On 31 October, president-elect Bolsonaro announced astronaut Marcos Pontes as the future Minister of Science and Technology; as of that date, he had already confirmed two other ministerial nominations: Paulo Guedes as Economy minister, and Augusto Heleno as defence minister. However, on 7 November, Augusto Heleno was appointed to the Institutional Security Office of Brazil. On the first day of November, Bolsonaro confirmed that anti-graft judge Sergio Moro had accepted his invitation to serve as Justice minister. The decision drew backlash from the international press because Moro had convicted Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Bolsonaro's chief political rival in the election, for money laundering and corruption.
On 11 November 2018, O Estado de S. Paulo released a story stating that Bolsonaro's team has chosen World Bank director and former finance minister Joaquim Levy to head the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES). A report was later issued by Folha de S. Paulo that Bolsonaro has yet to confirm the nomination of Levy to the post. A press release from Paulo Guedes's team, released the next day, confirmed Levy's appointment. On 15 November 2018, economist Roberto Campos Neto was named as the future Central Bank governor.
In December 2018 the final composition had emerged after weeks of announcements and appointments. The cabinet would include 22 personnel, of which 16 are ministers, two are cabinet-level positions and four are secretaries directly linked to the presidency. The 22 figure is down from 29 in the outgoing administration. Seven of the ministers will be military men, eight have technocrat profiles, and seven are politicians. Hindustan Times commented that "there are just two women in Bolsonaro’s government, which is double the number in the outgoing lineup under President Michel Temer", and that "there are no blacks, despite half of Brazil’s population being at least partly descended from Africans".
On 7 November 2019, Roberto Alvim was nominated Special Secretary for Culture under the auspices of the Ministry of Tourism, only to be fired on 17 January 2020 after appearing to quote a speech by German Nazi politician Joseph Goebbels in a government-sanctioned video.
On 18 June 2020, Minister of Education Abraham Weintraub resigned.
Domestic policy
In one of his first actions as president, Bolsonaro increased the minimum wage from R$954 to R$998. Within days of assuming office, Bolsonaro transferred land reform duties from the National Indigenous Foundation (FUNAI) to the Ministry of Agriculture. Most of the remaining duties previously assigned to FUNAI are now part of the Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights.
Economy Bolsonaro spent the first months of his administration trying to pass legislation and enact reforms with the stated goal of creating more economic freedom and growth for Brazil. The federal government cut taxes for some specific sectors of the economy and removed import tariffs for several areas, such as capital goods, and IT or telecommunication products which were necessary for technological evolution and increased production in the medical, industrial, and agricultural sectors. Bolsonaro also removed the import tariffs of sailing ships, jet skis and other luxury items. The government also passed a controversial pension reform, along with making other changes across the economy. The government also tried to pass economic reforms such as the , which enveloped around resource decentralization combined with greater fiscal responsibility in Brazil's management, reduction of taxes for productive sectors of the economy, reduction of direct state investments in the economy, and the debureaucratization of the state, while increasing funding for anti-poverty programmes. Some of those proposals were able to pass in Congress, though others were stopped in different committees. Overall, though the economy did grow, poverty and inequality expanded under Bolsonaro.
According to the economist Guilherme Delgado, the proposed measures made by Bolsonaro disorganized the public service, stifled investments, privileged the rich, weakened democratic rights and deepened economic and social inequalities.Fachin, Patricia. "Plano mais Brasil não é um projeto de crescimento, mas de aprofundamento da desigualdade econômica e social". Revista do Instituto Humanitas - Unisinos, 12 November 2019
The result of Bolsonaro's economic reforms were mixed. Overall, prior to the COVID-19 recession, the Brazilian economy was recovering and growing, though at a slower pace than predicted by the government. In 2021, Brazil broke a record with more than 4 million companies being opened by the private sector, of which 1,4 million end up closing, an increase of 34.6% when compared to 2020. Talking about most of the reforms enacted by Bolsonaro, according to the Interunion Department of Statistics and Socioeconomic Studies, "the final objective [of the reforms] was to reduce the size of the State, not so that it could become more agile, but so that the private sector could profit from activities that were previously done by the government"."Pacote do Plano Mais Brasil representa destruição do Estado brasileiro". Sindicato Nacional dos Docentes das Instituições de Ensino Superior, 7 November 2019
The Bolsonaro administration left Brazil with a public debt of $5,87 trillion reais (or US$1.12 trillion). Bolsonaro ended his term leaving the largest federal debt in the history of the country. Bolsonaro was also the first Brazilian president since the , in the mid-90s, to end his term with a real minimum wage worth less than when taking office.
Energy The main characteristic of the Brazilian energy matrix is that it is much more renewable than most other countries. While in 2019 the world matrix was only 14% made up of renewable energy, Brazil's was at 45%. Petroleum and oil products made up 34.3% of the matrix; sugar cane derivatives, 18%; hydraulic energy, 12.4%; natural gas, 12.2%; firewood and charcoal, 8.8%; varied renewable energies, 7%; mineral coal, 5.3%; nuclear, 1.4%, and other non-renewable energies, 0.6%. In the electric energy matrix, the difference between Brazil and the world is even greater: while the world only had 25% of renewable electric energy in 2019, Brazil had 83%. The Brazilian electric matrix is composed of: hydraulic energy, 64.9%; biomass, 8.4%; wind energy, 8.6%; solar energy, 1%; natural gas, 9.3%; oil products, 2%; nuclear, 2.5%; coal and derivatives, 3.3%.