Culture secretary fired over Nazi-like language Brazil
Roberto Alvim was fired as Brazil’s culture secretary yesterday after using phrases similar to some used by Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.
Alvim made the comments while discussing a new art prize. He had held the post since November.
Brazilian President
Jair Bolsonaro removed him after a backlash from Jewish organisations, key lawmakers, political parties, artists, and the country’s bar association.
Bolsonaro had previously announced a multimillion-dollar arts initiative led by Alvim, focused on nationalism and religion, to foment the production of literature, theatre, opera, music and other arts.
Alvim, a born-again Christian, delivered a separate message in a video about the initiative, using a phrase that some commentators identified as resembling language in a speech by Goebbels.
Alvim, who has disavowed Nazism, acknowledged the similarity but said it was merely a ‘‘rhetorical coincidence’’.
The speeches both say the nation’s art ‘‘in the next decade will be heroic’’ and ‘‘will be national’’. Both also conclude by saying the country’s art will be deeply connected to their people ‘‘or it will be nothing’’.
Davi Alcolumbre, the first Jewish president of Brazil’s senate, said the video was ‘‘shockingly Nazism-inspired’’.
The arts project jibes with the government’s other efforts to overturn what Bolsonaro calls ‘‘cultural Marxism’’, which some of his ministers say is undermining Brazilian society’s morals.
Alvim’s video also used music from an opera by German composer Richard Wagner, who is sometimes associated with Nazism and German nationalism. He said he chose the music himself, because the work was transcendent and stemmed from Wagner’s Christian faith.