Michelle Bolsonaro entre o púlpito e palanque antifeminismo e conservadorismo no cenário político brasileiro

Abstract

On March 21, 2023, former First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro (MB), who had previously been discreet in the political-electoral scene, assumed the presidency of PL Mulher (Women's Liberal Party). Currently, she declares herself a conservative woman and has the Protestant Christian faith as a prominent element of her identity. Her inauguration occurred in a context of helplessness and representational crisis within the Brazilian far-right, triggered by the defeat of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in the 2022 elections. Despite the defeat, the PL won the largest bloc in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate in the same election. It is estimated that PL Mulher was created around 2019 by the PL itself, as a wing intended to promote the participation and training of new female leaders within the party.In 2023, MB also began leading the "Conservative Women's Movement" alongside Senator Damares Alves. Following the events of January 8th and the imminent ineligibility of former President Jair Bolsonaro, the PL party, led by Valdemar Costa Neto, is betting on Michelle Bolsonaro as a way to restore the party's image and is investing in the feminine evangelical public, preparing future leaders for the 2024 elections. Considering that Bolsonarism is intensely structured in digital media and that the former first lady's political activity is more detailed on the @plmulher page on Instagram, this research started with a commemorative post referring to Michelle Bolsonaro's first year as leader, in which, according to the page, her administration promoted a 370% increase in the number of PL affiliations.According to data released by the TSE (Superior Electoral Court), the number of members affiliated with the PL (Liberal Party) rose from 755,443 in 2022 to 904,618 in 2024, a growth of approximately 19.8%, a period corresponding to Michelle Bolsonaro's presidency. Based on this data, this research aimed to identify which political and communication strategies of PL Mulher (Women's Liberal Party), under Michelle Bolsonaro's leadership in 2023, contributed to the significant growth in membership. The data collected included all posts and reels published on the @plmulher page on Instagram during the first year of MB's leadership, and the recording of the PL Mulher Salvador Meeting, available on their YouTube channel.The data were structured using content analysis methodology, employing quantitative and qualitative approaches. For the discussion of the results, the analyses were constructed alongside theoretical frameworks and focused on discussing the relationship between politics and religion. Thus, this research was organized into three main axes. The first deals with a general analysis of the @plmulher page in order to observe the impact of Michelle Bolsonaro's arrival at PL Mulher and to point out which elements and actions help explain the significant increase in the number of affiliations to PL. Given that the promotion of in-person meetings is the main strategy of the PL Mulher (Women's Liberal Party), this research then focuses on the PL Mulher Salvador meeting, aiming to discuss how Michelle Bolsonaro's self-declaration as "feminine" and "anti-feminist" relates to religious, gender, and racial issues. These meetings, marked by a conservative discourse, are strongly associated with Protestant tenets such as "vocation," "calling," and "purpose." Thus, the third phase concentrates on discussing how the concept of conservatism is presented by the far-right feminist movement and how these tenets relate to women's engagement and affiliation with the PL.