Brazil’s new president begins term with support of conservative Christians
Jair Bolsonaro created a Christian voting bloc through opposition to what he called a liberal moral drift.
The cabinet members of Brazil’s new president, Jair Bolsonaro, are often cited to explain his victory at the polls: they are active or retired members of the armed forces, free-market economists, and ultraconservative Lutheran, Catholic, and evangelical Christian politicians.
This support from the Christian right, along with his unbridled opinions and social media attacks, have caused many to see the twice-divorced Bolsonaro as the Trump of South America. But while Trump won with the help of a well-established evangelical constituency, Bolsonaro, a retired army captain, created his Christian voting bloc through opposition to what he called a liberal moral drift.
In the early 1990s, Bolsonaro went from being an undisciplined middle-ranking officer—whose only fame came when he tried to organize a barracks campaign to raise wages—to a congressman known mostly for his defense of Brazil’s repressive military dictatorship which ended in the mid-1980s. He was not shy about granting interviews, often making headlines.
