In celebration of the first hundred days of government, on April 11, 2019, President Jair Bolsonaro signed Decree 9.759/2019, which “extinguishes and establishes guidelines, rules and limitations for members of the federal public administration.”

In practical terms, the decree dissolves federal councils and commissions in which direct participation of civil society in deliberations and decisions on Brazil’s public policies takes place. Generally connected to  ministries, these mechanisms, now under attack, are part of the construction of the democratic practice since the constituent project was inaugurated in 1988.

Due to this, it seems important to answer: to what extent is this decree compatible with Brazil’s Constitution? What will be its consequences and how does it relate to the recent attacks on Brazilian democracy?

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On leaving the guided tour of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, President Bolsonaro uttered: ‘He who forgets his past is condemned to have no future.’ On the same day, the president ratified the thesis also supported by Chancellor Ernesto Araújo that Nazism was a leftist movement, stating: ‘There’s no doubt, it is the National Socialist Party of Germany.’

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At the beginning of the week (March 25, 2019), the Presidency of the Republic announced the order for “due commemorations” to be held on March 31, which marks the 55th anniversary of the 1964 civil-military coup, which initiated a dictatorship that lasted 21 years in Brazil. From the redemocratization until Bolsonaro’s election, celebrations of the coup by the Armed Forces took place discreetly. Manifestations that went beyond the borders of the barracks were received with punishments and political crises.

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