Last night, we saw what we came to Brazil for. We Ubered over to Globo News headquarters in Rio de Janeiro to see the Partido Missao protest against the decision to exclude Renan Santos from the climax Brazilian presidential candidates debate. Traffic locked up as we got within half a mile, so we got out and ran the rest of the way through on-and-off light rain. As we got closer, we could hear shouting, fireworks, and speeches. When we got there, the whole street was packed with about 2000 Brazilians waving yellow Missao flags, shouting slogans mocking Lula and Bolsonaro, cheering for Renan, and calling for policies like “Prendeu, matou” (”arrest and kill [the cartels]”).
It was surprisingly orderly. Traffic was still able to get through because the organizers had created a corridor through the middle of the crowd. As cars came streaming through, about a quarter of them displayed Missao political pamphlets and flags, or honked and shouted support, the crowd cheering every time. Speakers riled up the crowd to chant praise for the military police for keeping good order. Volunteers handed out hundreds of disposable rain ponchos, which were much appreciated.
There was a giant screen set up presumably to watch to debate. We heard on the way over that the supreme court had capitulated and would allow Renan to participate in the debate. But soon after that, we heard that Bolsonaro had pulled out, and then Globo had outright cancelled the debate. It was clear that they were scared of facing Renan head to head, despite his supposedly irrelevant “3%” in the polls. Lula is very old, Bolsonaro lacks substance, and Renan is a young charismatic firebrand intellectual, so it’s not hard to see why. Instead, Renan was coming here to address us.
While we waited, the screen stopped showing debate images, and showed Renan’s 24 hour livestream as he drove over with Amanda Vettorazzo. Speakers like his brother, various high level party members, and the local candidate for governor, got up on the box truck and gave fiery speeches that we were unfortunately unable to understand. They alternated between speeches and riling the crowd up singing and shouting slogans. It was great fun, but we were waiting for Renan.
Soon the screen showed Renan pointing the camera out the front window to show the crowd. He was here. The noise level increased immensely and all remaining traffic ground to a halt as his car pulled in front of the makeshift stage and the crowd poured in close.
As soon as he arrived, the rain completely dumped and the lightning started. It was like an omen of hardship and determination. He stood up on the edge of the box, 15 feet above the crowd, his suit jacket for the debate instantly soaked through, and paused dramatically in rain and firework smoke to take in the energy of the crowd. It was so thick we could barely see him even from 40 feet away.
He started with chants and slogans, riling up the crowd into a fever. “Prendeu!” he shouted. “Matou!” the crowd answered, faster and louder each time. Then he spoke for an hour in the pouring rain, punctuated by outbursts of chanting from the crowd. As far as we could tell, no one left despite the thorough soaking. It was like someone upstairs had sent the rain and lightning to make a dramatic point: Missao has the will to take hardship together. Someone called it “metaphysical”.
We got google translate working and pieced together elements of his speech. He told us the system and establishment politicians were cowards unwilling to face him, and that Missao was the only thing they feared. He told us the people of Brazil were survivors facing unacceptable conditions, and that they don’t have to live in the favelas and crime anymore, that they don’t have to be strip mined by foreign powers like China and the US, but can use the rare earths and resources and industrial capacity of Brazil to build an advanced technological society. I can’t possibly summarize the whole thing, but he finished saying that the world was watching, that Brazilian gen Z were the first to start breaking out from under the boomer vampireocracy with their own native politics, and would be an example to the rest of us around the world.
He finished with the Brazilian national anthem, making a point that the other parties were compromised by foreign power (he mentioned Bolsonaro’s connections with the American Rockbridge funding network and also Chinese influence), but Missao was for Brazil. They sang in the rain while he waved the brazillian flag. Commentators noted the complete absence of American and Israeli flags, presumably a fixture at other parties’ events (the only flags present were Missao and Brazil).
Then he tried to step down, but the crowd wouldn’t let him go. They shouted for more, and he riled them up further for another 15 minutes or so with fragments of speech and slogans. People hanging out of the window of the nearby apartment building attracted the attention of the crowd, and he waved to them while the crowd cheered. Renan took the opportunity to endorse the local Missao candidates, especially Coronel Busnello, who was some kind of retired military police sniper who he said had taken a bullet for Brazil and was now running for office. The whole thing was extremely positive, optimistic, friendly despite the determined and passionate aesthetic. We had a great time.
As it broke up, we walked away, saying goodbye to a few friends, but missed a chance to greet Renan himself. We made our way home and went to bed.
Then at 2am I checked my phone, and they had messaged me saying Renan saw me at the event and they wanted to hang out. (They are seemingly all Palladium readers and fans of our wider scene so they know a bunch of us). There are few people I would get out of bed at 2am for, but Renan is one of them.
I met them at a local bar as things were closing down, and got to see Renan and other friends in a quieter private session again. It was casual and quiet, with Renan asking us strategy questions, reminiscing about the maneuvers they had made to get back into the debate and how everyone but Missao had been discredited by the cancellation debacle. He emphasized that for a small third party like them, they have to play cleverly between left and right to punch above their weight and push their program through. Classic Missao 3d chess like the Meritocratic anime protagonists they admire. It seems to be working. We joked about how Renan is just the sensible centrist, but since they aren’t weak compromisers it’s more like “muscular centrism”. Then Renan had to go, and said we should do an interview when they get to Sao Paulo. So hopefully I’ll have that for you guys soon.
Today, much of the Missao discourse on twitter appears to be various people noticing and defecting to Renan, surprisingly especially from the left. They seem to notice and admire the youthful revolutionary energy and lack of compromise with the establishment right. I still don’t expect them to win this presidential election, but this whole thing only confirmed my impression from last time that eventually, at least for Brazil, Renan Santos is the coming man.