From Religious Populism to Civil Religion: a Discourse Analysis of Bolsonaro’s and Lula’s Inaugural and Victory Speeches

Abstract

AbstractReligion played a major role during the presidential elections in Brazil in 2018 and 2022. Although much has been written about Bolsonaro’s religious influence on Brazilian politics, there is a need to understand how politicians on other sides of the political spectrum have positioned themselves in regard to religion. Thus, through transdisciplinary research rooted in Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) explanation phase, this article seeks to assess both Bolsonaro’s and Lula’s victory and inauguration speeches and their intricacies that appeal to various sorts of politicized religion by problematizing contrasting meanings in discourses of these Brazilian leaders and exploring how social circumstances have enabled or provided conditions for the reproduction of power relations between these politicians and the realm of religion, primarily Christianity. Hence, the article questions: First, which forms of political religion are expressed in the two presidents’ victory speeches and inauguration speeches in the aftermath of the last two general elections? Second, in what ways have both presidents been contributing to the politicization of religion and to what degree do Lula and Bolsonaro differ in this regard? It concludes by arguing that although Bolsonaro’s exclusionary religious populism can be contrasted to Lula’s inclusionary civil religion, there are also some important similarities in their discourses as both politicize Brazilian religion.