Leaders | The trial of Jair Bolsonaro

Brazil offers America a lesson in democratic maturity

It is a test case for how countries recover from a populist fever

Jair Bolsonaro wearing Brazil face paint and a headdress with horns
Illustration: Gregori Saavedra

Leaders

August 30th 2025
|5 min read

IMAGINE A COUNTRY where a polarising president lost his bid for re-election and refused to accept the result. He declared the ballot rigged and used social media to urge his supporters to rise up. They did so in their thousands, attacking government buildings. Then the insurrection failed, the ex-president faced a criminal investigation and prosecutors put him on trial for plotting a coup.

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