ABSTRACT
For a long time, Paulo Freire was seldom mentioned in Brazilian newspapers and political debate. This has changed in the past few years. In 2012, under Dilma Rousseff’s first term as President, Brazil passed Law No. 12,612 which declared Paulo Freire as “patron of Brazilian education.” In 2017, after Ms. Rousseff’s impeachment, sectors of the Brazilian Congress tried to repeal this law. Amongst conservative groups in parliament and civil society, a burgeoning sentiment developed that Paulo Freire should be viewed as the paramount adversary. Derived from the analysis of the ultraconservative Olavo de Carvalho, these groups overestimate the impact of Freire’s influence in Brazil, believing that the whole national educational system is enthralled by Freire’s doctrine, which they associate with cultural Marxism. Despite the evident complexity of the Brazilian educational system, there is, at present, a surprising insistence on the role of the Freirean legacy. This insistence, I contend, is indicative of which field Brazilian conservatism believes the struggle for power is being played out on. That is, on the far-right, after the election of the deputy Jair Bolsonaro as president, the struggle for power in Brazil is seen as a fundamentally ideological and cultural battle.
