2022 Brazilian Political Crisis (Federal Republic of Brazil)
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| 2022 Brazilian Political Crisis | ||||
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| 2022 Brazilian Vincenzi Letter Aftermath Crisis | ||||
 1st Division of the Brazilian Army in the Morro do Polaco, 16 February 2022 | ||||
| Date | 15 January 2022 - 10 November 2022 | |||
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| Goals | Government (since 14 February)
Anti-Government
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| Resulted in | Government Triumph; see below | |||
| Parties to the civil conflict | ||||
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| Lead figures | ||||
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| Casualties | ||||
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The 2022 Brazilian Political Crisis was a political crisis that took place in the Federal Republic of Brazil following the leaking of the Vincenzi Letter. It started on 16 January of 2022, the day the TV Tupi newscast announced the existence of a conspiracy among government officials to establish a new government form in Brazil. Although the Political Crisis was motivated by the leaking of the Vincenzi Letter, many political analysts say that the Letter was just the final drop necessary for action to be taken against the government of Prime Minister Ingrid Santos - a government that was worn off by economic stagnation and its inability to contain violence.
Background
In 2018 the Brazilian President, Juarez Antônio dos Passos, dissolved the parliament following a gridlock over the issue of the Bolivarian War. The parliament couldn't agree on a definitive resolution over intervention in Venezuela, the Brazilian neighbor that was in a civil war between Bolivarianists and Democrats. Following the 2018 Extraordinary Elections, Ingrid Winckler dos Santos, a young but popular Deputy from the state of Rio Grande do Sul, was elected Prime Minister by the parliament. Ingrid's cabinet was formed mostly by Warhawks, especially the Minister of Defense, Paulino Querino Meneses. On January 2019, Ingrid authorized Brazilian military intervention in Venezuela, sending material and tactical support for the Democrats. However, the Brazilian intervention in Venezuela was described as disastrous by observers. The guerrilla warfare waged by the Bolivarianists proved to be a tough challenge, and opposition to the intervention began to grow following the Brazilian bombing of Caracas, which Amnesty International considered to be a war crime.
By 2020 inflation reached 9.5%, affecting mostly basic products such as foodstuff and fuel. Criminality also increased, with the murder rate growing 16% - since 2013, the murder rate in Brazil was decreasing. Other problems included the "Mensalão do SUS", a corruption scandal involving the Ministry of Healthcare and the upper echelons of the state secretaries of healthcare of 14 Brazilian states. According to the Public Ministry, more than $10 billion were diverted from the public healthcare funding to the accounts of politicians and their relatives.
On 16 January 2022, at the Tupi TV's prime time newscast - the Brazilian Diary - the Vincenzi Letter was leaked. The document detailed a conspiration against the parliamentary democracy of Brazil. The Vincenzi Letter detailed a Brazilian-Italian plot to restore the Brazilian monarchy under an authoritarian regime. According to the plot, a false-flag attack on the Brazilian Congress was to take place in the first week of March, at the time the campaign for the 2022 Parliamentary Elections would begin. The so-called "victim" of the attack was to be Ingrid herself, but the bomb was to be "misplaced", thus killing the main opposition leader, Senator Valdemir Souto (UDN-AL). The house of the prime minister, the Ipiranga Palace, also would be targeted to divert attention from the killing of Valdemir Souto. The organized terrorist attacks would serve as a justification to install an emergence government and cancel the 2022 parliamentary elections. It was not explicitly detailed how the monarchy would be restored.
Gottschalk's Government
After a month of impasse and uncertainty, the Santos cabinet resigned on 13 February 2022. On the following day, Brazilian president Alessandro Malvezzi appointed Giovanna Gottschalk as prime minister. A member of the National Reorganization League, Gottschalk was an inexperienced politician. Malvezzi's decision caught the Brazilian Old Order off-guard, but Gottschalk's ability to form a powerful coalition was proof of the capabilities of the newcomer.
Giovanna managed to form a coalition with the Brazilian Labour Party, the National Labour Party, and dissidents of the National Popular Front - both parties that were former allies of Ingrid Santos. The Republican Party and the Brazilian Technocratic Party also joined the coalition. On 19 February, the Brazilian Integralist Party, the Christian Democratic Party, and dissidents of the National Democratic Union formed the Brazilian Anti-Communist Federation, a coalition that gave support to Gottschalk's cabinet. This was in part due to the Brazilian Communist Party forming the Brazilian United Front, a coalition of left-wing parties that opposed Giovanna Gottschalk's policies.
On 21 February, the Social Democratic Party formed the Coalition for a Just Brazil, a coalition of right-wing and centrist parties that claimed to "support democracy in face of left-wing and far-right extremism". The Coalition for a Just Brazil was created as a reaction against the Reorganization Manifesto (Manifesto Reorganizador), authored by Giovanna Gottschalk. The Manifesto detailed the plans of the National Reorganization League. Among the League's plans, were:
- Extension of capital punishment for the crimes of corruption and conspiration;
- Intensification of the War on Drugs;
- Abolishment of public funding for political parties;
- Abolish state parties and enact the Party Registration Act, which would establish rules for the creation of political parties;
- Enact the Apolitical Education Bill, which seeks to fight indoctrination in public schools and universities;
- Enact the Native Integration Act, thus reducing the area of Native Reservations by a significant margin and enforcing the national curriculum on Amerindian tribes;
- and the establishment of forced labour camps and penal colonies for serious offenders.