Brazil (2020 Crisis)

Brazil (Portuguese: Brasil ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: República Federativa do Brasil), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At 8.5 million square kilometers and with over 243 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area and the seventh most populous. The capital is Brasília, and the most populated city São Paulo. The federation is composed of the union of the 26 states, the Federal District, and the 5,570 municipalities. It is the largest country to have Portuguese as an official language and the only one in the Americas; it is also one of the most multicultural and ethnically diverse nations, due to over a century of mass immigration from around the world.

Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of 7,491 kilometers. It borders all other South American countries except Ecuador and Chile and covers 47.3% of the continent's land area. Its Amazon River basin includes a vast tropical forest, home to diverse wildlife, a variety of ecological systems, and extensive natural resources spanning numerous protected habitats. This unique environmental heritage makes Brazil one of 17 megadiverse countries, and is a global example of environmental protection and reforestation.

Brazil was inhabited by numerous tribal nations prior to the landing in 1500 of explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, who claimed the area for the Portuguese Empire. Brazil remained a Portuguese colony until 1808, when the capital of the empire was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro. In 1815, the colony was elevated to the rank of kingdom upon the formation of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Independence was achieved in 1822 with the creation of the Empire of Brazil, a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system. The ratification of the first constitution in 1824 led to the formation of a bicameral legislature, now called the National Congress. The country became a presidential republic in 1889 following a military coup d'état. An authoritarian military dictartorship came to power in 1964 and ruled until 1985, after which civilian governance resumed. Brazil's current constitution, formulated in 1988, defines it as a democratic federal republic.

Brazil is considered a newly developed nation. It has the fourth largest GDP in the world by PPP measures. It is one of the world's major breadbaskets, being the largest producer of coffee for the last 200 years. It is classified as an high income economy by the World Bank, and a newly developed country, with the largest share of global wealth in Latin America. Brazil is a regional power in Latin America and a great power in international affairs, with a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. It has an international recognition and influence.

Etymolgy
See on Wikipedia: Etymology of Brazil

History Pre-2019
See on Wikipedia : History of Brazil

Bolsonaro's Presidency (2019 - 2022)
On January 1, 2019, ascended to the Presidency of Brazil the long-term conservative politician, former federal deputy and former Brazilian Army captain, Jair Messias Bolsonaro, elected with a speech of conservative moral and economic liberalism, following the serious political crisis and 2014 - 2016 economic crisis, which discredited the traditional political class, and led to the rejection of the Workers Party and its leftist ideology after the crisis and corruption scandals.

It was the first time since the end of the Brazilian Military Dictatorship that one that a conservative right-wing government was on the Planalto.

The Jair Bolsonaro administration began with an economic recovery after years of recession and economic stagnation, which stabilized the president's popularity in 2020 despite controversial proposals and positions in the area of ​​customs, environment, and unwelcome and offensive comments. However, the crisis in 2020 and 2021 affected growth in 2021, which was below expectations, and was thwarted by a weak increase in consumption, and by 2022 the economy was in recession again with a banking crisis following deregulation. President Jair Boslonaro quickly lost popularity in 2020 and, failing to deliver a speech that gave hope to the Brazilian people, lost the 2022 elections.

Brazil Under Bolsonaro
Brazil during the years of Jair Bolsonaro's rule saw an economic recovery during the first three years thwarted in 2022. The government has passed several reforms in the economic field, but the National Congress has blocked almost its entire conservative agenda of customs, including many Congressional proposals of origin being passed that met the President's interests. Therefore, while many analysts see President Bolsonaro as having authoritarian tendencies, he was one of the weakest presidents of Brazil, and in practice his government was taken over by Congress and his cabinet in a de facto parliamentarism.

The Bolsonaro administration was marked by ongoing political crises involving his cabinet and the party where he was. In 2019 he left the PSL (Social Liberal Party - Partido Social Liberal in Portuguese) party and founded his own, the Alliance for Brazil (Aliança pelo Brasil, in Portuguese).

Nevertheless, the official Opposition, which included leftist parties, had little influence on political life throughout the Bolsonaro administration, with the traditional Workers' Party trying to play a very small political role.

While public security improved during Bolsonaro administration, despite remaining high, the government was unable to deliver improvements in public health and education.

Economy
The economy during Jair Bolsonaro's administration was characterized by the implementation of neoliberal economic policies, including economic openness, deregulation, public spending control and supply-side economics. Important reforms to the economy were approved during the government, such as pension reform, tax reform and administrative reform, as well as advances in red tape and deregulation, which continued in subsequent management, and improved the business environment.

The economy in 2019 remained below initial expectations, but by 2020, even in the midst of the international crisis, the economy grew by 2.5%. But already by 2020 symptoms of the coming crisis in 2022 began. The Brazilian industry began to suffer competition from imports with the reduction of commercial barracks, and had a very weak growth. Financial and capital deregulation in 2020 made the financial sector more crisis-prone, such as in 2022 after a stock market crash, prompted by a stock bubble that began in 2016.

In the field of government spending, the primary and secondary deficit were reduced, but the government failed to establish any surplus, and the debt-to-GDP ratio, which was contained between 2019 and 2021, increased by 2022.

Despite the poor economic performance, major reforms have been made to ensure long-term growth and have been expanded. Inflation also remained contained, despite the lowest interest rates in Brazilian history at the time.

Foreing Relations
During the Jair Bolsonaro administration, there was a strong approchement with right-wing governments and conservatives around the world. The Bolsonaro administration broke the strong Brazilian tradition of independence in world geopolitics and sought to bring closer to Trump's United States, in an alignment that brought little economic and geopolitical benefits to Brazil. As a result of its alignment with the United States, Brazil received in 2019 the status of major non-NATO ally. Brazil was the only country named major non-NATO ally during the Trump administration. However, despite Trump administration's vocal support for Brazil's entry into the OECD, little has been done to accelerate Brazil's entry into the organization, which only became a member in 2022 in the last year of Bolsonaro's administration and as Joe Biden's presidency in the United States.

Following the election of President Joe Biden in 2020, relations between Brazil and the United States soured, by the Democratic Party's rejection of Bolsoanro's environmental policy, President Bolsonaro's offensive comments, and Bolsonaro's support for Trump and vice versa. It also hears a strong rapprochement with Israel, enhancing the longstanding good relations between Brazil and Israel, largely due to the ideological convergence between Jair Bolsonaro and Benjamin Netanyahu, but also to please the growing Brazilian evangelical electorate that was one of the main support bases of President Bolsonaro. It hears progress in Brazil-Israel relations in the areas of trade, defense and agriculture, in particular in Israel's support in implementing groundwater desalination programs in the semi-arid Northeast of Brazil.With China and Russia, relations remained cold, with some friction over Brazil's alignment with the United States and the Brazilian-lead South American in Venezuela, despite increased trade and joint defense of free trade. On the other hand, relations with India have greatly improved.

With Europe relations were strained many times, and varied from country to country. Still in 2019 there was a crisis with the President of France Emmanuel Macron regarding the Brazilian environmental policy. Relations with Macron's France and other European countries most contrary to Jair Bolsonaro's right-wing rhetorical and environmental policy, were distant, but relations European countries ruled by right-wing governments were good.

In Latin America, regional integration increased during the Bolsonaro administration, especially with right-wing governments, due to the defense of free trade and regional cooperation in intervention in Venezuela. There were initial frictions with Argentina, Brazil's biggest ally, after the inauguration of Alberto Fernandez, but relations soon improved.

The government's environmental policy has also isolated Brazil from the climate change agenda.