O espectro vermelho em verde e amarelo: ressonâncias do discurso anticomunista na campanha eleitoral de 2022 de Jair Bolsonaro

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the anti-communist discourse as a tool for political and ideological mobilization in Jair Bolsonaro’s 2022 electoral campaign, analyzing its authoritarian legacies and contemporary strategies. The central objective is to understand how anti-communist discourse is strengthened as an instrument of social and political control, articulated through moral panics, religious elements, and cultural war narratives in the construction of symbolic enemies. The methodology is grounded in historical-dialectical materialism, enabling an analysis of this discourse as an expression of class interests and an ideological tool for the demobilization of progressive movements. Data collection is based on official speeches, journalistic articles, and transcripts of campaign videos, analyzed through French-oriented Discourse Analysis. The research is structured into three chapters: historical and conceptual foundations of communism and anti-communism in Brazil; anti-communism in the context of before 2018 Bolsonarism; and a focused analysis of the 2022 campaign discourses, exploring their implications for political polarization and connections with conservative narratives. The analysis seeks to demonstrate that Bolsonaro’s anti-communist discourse does not emerge as a mere doctrinal opposition, but as a systemic counteroffensive articulated across political, cultural, and economic dimensions.