Neo-Nazis in Brazil: Hitler salute? – Job gone
Dhe Brazilian moderator Bruno Aiub has lost his job. “I think Nazis should be allowed to have their own party,” he said on the Flow podcast. Aiub also said everyone should have the right to oppose Jews to be. Sponsors dropped out shortly after the show. In addition, the Attorney General’s Office opened an investigation because in the same program the Liberal MP Kim Kataguiri’s statements, although not going so far, went in a similar direction. He said an ideology or opinion should not be fought with laws but with debates.
The podcast, which has since been deleted, was then the subject of another discussion program that was broadcast on the major radio station “Jovem Pan”, also in moving images. This show also ended with a dismissal. The reason was a gesture by the well-known commentator Adrilles Jorge. During the program he repeatedly condemned the glorification of National Socialism. At the very end – and after a reference to the atrocities committed by communist regimes – he raised his hand in farewell. A Hitler salute? Sarcasm? Nothing at all?
In the context of the previous discussion, it was definitely “surreal, Adrilles,” as the show’s moderator said, shocked – to which Jorge Adreiles showed a broad grin. Jorge, who denies that it was a Hitler salute, is now also out of his job.
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Jewish organizations in Brazil are outraged by the incidents. They sharply condemned the events and statements. The Brazilian organization Jews for Democracy called the gesture “absurd” and “unacceptable” – a day after a “Youtuber” and an MP defended the existence of a Nazi party. A reaction also came from the German embassy in Brazil: “Defending National Socialism is not freedom of expression.” Rather, this is disrespectful to the victims and survivors of this regime and disregards the atrocities it caused.
Identified more than 500 neo-Nazi groups
The episodes have sparked a fierce and arguably necessary debate in Brazil about the limits of freedom of expression. It is also necessary because similar incidents have increased in recent years. In Brazil it is a crime to manufacture, market and distribute symbols to spread Nazism. The law has been used much more frequently in recent years than it used to be.
The number of reports of entries on the Internet glorifying National Socialism has also increased. According to estimates by experts, more than 500 neo-Nazi groups have been identified in Brazil, which are said to have around 10,000 followers, also a significant increase in recent years. Some of the groups are armed, raids have shown, and are ready to use their weapons, according to investigators. To the heroes of neo-nazis Also counts a young gunman who caused a bloodbath at a school in 2019 with ten dead.
Bolsonaro describes National Socialism as a left-wing ideology
Some observers want a connection to the election of the right-wing national president behind the increasing number of disseminated material and content with Nazi ideology in Brazil Jair Bolsonaro see and argue that extreme right circles felt empowered and possibly protected by the President. Even some members of the government have made more or less explicit gestures in the past. For example, the young foreign policy adviser to Bolsonaro, who during a television broadcast formed his hand into the symbol of the “white power movement” and later said that he had only straightened his suit.
And then there was a former Minister of Culture, Bolsonaro, who copied the scenario, the music and even some sections of his speech for a television speech one-to-one from Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels. Bolsonaro himself once described National Socialism as a left-wing ideology.
Even a German Holocaust denier seems to feel more comfortable in this environment than at home. For a few weeks now, the right-wing extremist video blogger Nikolai Nerling, who has come to be known as “the people’s teacher”, has been speaking from Brazil, for example from the “colorful” Rio de Janeiro or from the southern Brazilian city of Pomerode, where he is probably staying at the moment. Various proceedings are underway in Germany against Nerling, who maintains contacts with violent neo-Nazi groups. In 2019, he was fined for Holocaust denial. In Brazil, too, he could soon come into conflict with the law. The Israelite community in Brazil says it is considering a lawsuit against the German.
