An Heir to Brazil's Monarchy Enters the Political Ring

BY MARK HOLSTON | JULY 26, 2018
Luiz Philippe de Orléans e Bragança, an heir to Brazil’s last emperor, is running for Congress – and could even be a VP pick.

He arrived at a Turkish coffee house in a swank district of São Paulo looking very prince-like, with a navy-blue cardigan precisely draped over a freshly-pressed light blue dress shirt. Before pleasantries had run their course, Luiz Philippe de Orléans e Bragança launched into one of his favorite themes, sounding very much like Donald Trump as he commented about the recent influx of impoverished Venezuelans and Haitians into Brazil. “You can now come into our country without any documentation whatsoever,” he stated in perfect English, “and that creates tremendous havoc for security. If you don’t have control of any kind over migration, your country can simply be over-run and your territory is no longer valid as a sovereign place for your own people.”

The charismatic and youthful 49-year-old enjoys the highest public profile of any living symbol of Brazil’s former monarchy, which governed the country as an independent nation-state from 1822 to 1889. Orléans e Bragança is a direct descendant of Dom Pedro II, who ruled as emperor for 58 years until being deposed by the military and exiled to Portugal. Although Dom Pedro II remains a much-revered historic figure in Brazil – there are more praças and public institutions bearing his name than anyone can count – monarchists have wielded little political influence in the modern era. In a 1993 constitutional referendum voted on by over 67 million Brazilians, support for restoration of the monarchy tallied barely 10 percent of votes cast.

These days, Orléans e Bragança is looking to enter the political ring by democratic means. When I interviewed him for this article last September, he denied any interest in actively seeking elective office. Yet in April, Orléans e Bragança announced his candidacy for Congress as a member of the Social Liberal Party – the party of Jair Bolsonaro, a retired right-wing Army captain who is running first in most polls for Brazil’s October presidential election. Brazilian media reported this week that Orléans e Bragança is now a leading candidate to be Bolsonaro’s running mate. Several other politicians – some of them reportedly put off by Bolsonaro’s views on minorities and guns – had previously turned down the offer.

I did not ask Orléans e Bragança about Bolsonaro during our interview. But he did expound at length upon a vision of a Brazil with a smaller state – a model which Bolsonaro too has embraced in recent months. And it’s clear he would bring to the campaign skills he has acquired as a provocative political commentator and a keen sense of how to use social media. He counts over half a million Facebook followers and likes – approximately the same number enjoyed by the incumbent president, Michel Temer, and six times the interest in the official Pró Monarquia Facebook page.

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Things changed, he asserted, when the initiatives favored by the royal family conflicted with the desires of the country’s growingly-powerful oligarchs. “At the end of the 19th century, the monarchy was old while the oligarchs were rich and young,” he added. “At that point, the monarchy was playing a progressive role, as it wanted to end slavery and industrialize the country. The agriculture-based oligarchs, however, were against industrialization and for slavery.”

More:
http://www.americasquarterly.org/content/heir-brazils-monarchy-enters-political-ring