Juninho Pernambucano: 'There are thousands of George Floyds in Brazil'
Thiago Rabelo in São Paulo
The former Lyon midfielder on racism, his country’s unravelling under Jair Bolsonaro and how Brazilians are taught to think only about money
@thiagorabelo1
Tue 7 Jul 2020 07.32 EDTLast modified on Tue 7 Jul 2020 08.50 EDT
Like so many other footballers and former professionals, Juninho Pernambucano could easily stay silent and not discuss the more important issues in life. But that, according to the former Lyon player and Brazil international, would be a betrayal of his principles.
We have been talking for 30 minutes when he breaks down in tears for the first time during an interview that lasts for two and a half hours. The situation in his native Brazil is out of control, the president, Jair Bolsonaro, having failed miserably to tackle coronavirus. This week the country went past 65,000 deaths and had almost 50,000 new cases in a day. The total number of cases has gone past 1.6 million. It is the second worst-hit country in the world.
Brazil is also a country of increasing inequality and racial tension under Bolsonaro’s leadership, and Juninho is discussing education and dignity when his voice starts to crack. “We have a poor education system in Brazil,” he says. “The rich people say we have to invest in education – but how? We need to fight against hunger, which is what [the former president] Lula said. If you are hungry you don’t have any confidence. Imagine a father or mother who are not able to provide three meals a day for your children. But even more important than education is dignity. Human dignity is a right that all of us need to have. Sorry, this is making me all very emotional …”
Dignity has been in short supply for the majority of Brazilians recently and the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis has only made matters worse. “I feel a deep sadness,” Juninho says, his voice breaking again. “Despair. We are doing everything wrong; going against everything that the rest of the world is doing. I am Brazilian, I know we are a poor country and our people need to work, but this is a question of life. If we had had a lockdown we could be close to the end of this but no … it is desperate to see our country now.”
. . .
The prevalence of fake news in Brazil under Bolsonaro and during the last two election campaigns are topics Juninho keeps returning to. Since 2014, Brazil has faced a political crisis and, according to Juninho, the impeachment of the Workers’ Party candidate Dilma Rousseff in 2016 and Bolsonaro’s election win in 2018 are the major factors behind the unrest. “When you take out Dilma in such a despicable way, you break a young democracy. Bolsonaro [winning] is a result of a boastful judge such as [Sérgio] Moro in the Lula case, a hate culture against the Workers’ Party and fake news,” he says.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/jul/07/juninho-pernambucano-there-are-thousands-of-george-floyds-in-brazil