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Fatos Nano obituary

Whether he was in government or in jail, Fatos Nano was one of the two figures, along with his arch-rival, Sali Berisha, who dominated Albania’s political scene in the turbulent 15 years that began with the disintegration of Communist party rule in 1990. It was characteristic of the political turmoil of this period that, although he was appointed prime minister on four separate occasions, Nano served for only a total of four years in that post. Nano, who has died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease aged 73, owed his political influence to his unchallenged position as the leader of the Socialist party of Albania (SPA) until 2005. As prime minister in 1991, Nano was instrumental in steering – when that was possible – Albania’s chaotic, but largely peaceful, transition from a hardline Stalinist regime with a collapsed command economy to a pluralist society and a fledgling market economy. The initial political beneficiary of that transformation was the opposition, led by Berisha’s Democratic Party of Albania (DPA), which won a landslide victory in the first genuinely free elections in March 1992. Berisha was elected president by the new parliament. Nano, who in 1991 had already started to turn the communist-era Party of Labour of Albania (PLA) into the social democratic SPA, soon found himself in prison, following his conviction on charges of corruption. Nano’s second opportunity to change the course of Albanian politics for the better came in March 1997, when the nationwide collapse of fraudulent pyramid investment schemes led to an uprising against Berisha’s increasingly authoritarian rule. This time the unrest turned much more violent than in 1991-92 as rebel groups and criminal gangs seized hundreds of thousands of weapons from army stores. In the snap elections of June 1997, the Socialists inflicted a crushing defeat on the Democrats, leading to Berisha’s resignation. Nano returned as prime minister and shifted the balance of power away from Berisha’s de facto presidential rule to a parliamentary system of government. During eight years of SPA rule that began in 1997, the economy was gradually stabilised, political life became calmer and social conflicts eased. However, the electorate became increasingly disenchanted with the self-serving rule, arrogance and unchecked corruption of the SPA governments. This resulted in the Democrats’ unexpected victory in the elections of July 2005, making it possible for Berisha to return to power from political oblivion. Nano’s last major contribution was to enable the smooth transfer of power to the DPA, and to resign from the SPA’s leadership. His successor, Edi Rama – the current prime minister – was to build the SPA into a formidable election-winning machine. Nano was born in Tirana, the Albanian capital. His father, Thanos, would later serve as the head of the state broadcaster, Albanian Radio and Television; his mother, Maria (nee Shuteriqi) was a government official. Fatos was educated at the elite Sami Frasheri high school, and graduated in political economy from the University of Tirana in 1974. After working as an economist at the Elbasan steel works, Nano joined the Institute of Marxist-Leninist Studies, the PLA’s ideological thinktank. He became a protege of the director, Nexhmije Hoxha, the widow of the communist dictator, Enver Hoxha, who had ruled Albania from 1944 until his death in 1985. Hoxha’s increasingly isolationist policies had led to Albania’s pauperisation in the 1980s. Economic hardship and the success of pro-democracy movements elsewhere in central and eastern Europe triggered student protests in Albania at the end of 1990. Nano was plucked from obscurity to be appointed the government’s secretary-general in December 1990. Thereafter his rise was meteoric: deputy prime minister by January 1991; and, following the toppling of Hoxha’s giant statue in central Tirana on 20 February, he was appointed prime minister by Hoxha’s successor, President Ramiz Alia. Nano was only 38 years old at the time of his appointment. His promotion was intended to project the image of a generational change and policy transformation by the regime. The tactics worked and he was appointed prime minister for a second time after the PLA won a landslide victory in the first multi-party elections that March. However, the PLA had enjoyed an overwhelming advantage in terms of resources and publicity over the fledgling opposition. The unfair elections prompted street protests and a general strike, and these led to Nano’s resignation in June. Within days, the congress of the PLA voted to rebrand the party as the SPA and elected Nano as its chairman. Following the DPA’s election victory in 1992, Nano was arrested in 1993, and in 1994 was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment for the misappropriation of state funds while prime minister. He denied all the charges, and he became a martyr for the Socialists. He continued to lead the SPA from prison: his then wife, Rexhina, acted as a conduit between him and his three deputies. During the uprising against Berisha’s rule in 1997 Nano was set free, and he subsequently led the Socialists to their election victory. Unlike Berisha, he was not vengeful, and there was no attempt to use the courts to punish the Democrats’ leaders. His third appointment as prime minister was cut short after a year by anti-government riots following the assassination of Azem Hajdari, a DPA politician, in 1998. The Democrats blamed the government, but a subsequent trial indicated that Hajdari’s killing had more to do with rivalry between gangs involved in arms smuggling. Nano escaped briefly from Tirana, and to defuse tensions he handed the premiership first to one young protege, Pandeli Majko, and then to another, Ilir Meta, while remaining in overall control of the government. However, as Meta began to assert himself, Nano returned to the post of prime minister in July 2002 to serve his last stint in that post. Attachment to power mattered less to Nano than enjoying the material benefits that came with being in government and the patronage it offered. He had a relaxed style: journalists (including me) were on occasion treated to a convivial chat and offered a glass or two of malt whisky. Nano’s comfortable lifestyle, the government’s complacency and the rift with Meta, who had set up a rival Socialist party, led to the SPA’s defeat in the 2005 elections. Nano’s resignation from the party leadership ended his political career. An attempt to get elected as head of state by parliament in 2007 failed in the face of opposition not only from Berisha’s Democrats but also many of Rama’s SPA legislators, who feared that Nano might emerge as a potential rival to their new leader. Thereafter, Nano and his second wife, Xhoana, whom he had married in 2002, led a quiet life, dividing their time between homes in Vienna and Tirana. He is survived by Xhoana and two children, Sokol and Edlira, from his first marriage, which ended in divorce, and a stepson, Klajdi. • Fatos Thanos Nano, politician, born 16 September 1952; died 31 October 2025

Video shows Israeli forces shooting Palestinians dead moments after surrender

Video of an Israeli military raid in the West Bank shows soldiers summarily executing two Palestinians they had detained seconds earlier. The shooting on Thursday evening, which was also witnessed by journalists close to the scene, is under justice ministry review, but has already been defended by Israel’s far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who declared that “terrorists must die”. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued a statement admitting two men were shot during a joint IDF operation with the Israeli border police around Jenin. It said the shooting “is under review by the commanders on the ground and will be transferred to the relevant professional bodies”. The footage, which has circulated widely within Israeli and Arab media, shows Israeli soldiers surrounding what appears to be a storage facility in an urban area. The troops use a mechanical digger to breach the garage-style door, after which two men crawl out of the building under the damaged door and give themselves up on their hands and knees, holding up their shirts to show they are unarmed. Uniformed men, identified in Israeli media as officers of Israel’s border police, then approach them. One officer, who is not wearing a helmet and is bald-headed and bearded, appears to take charge. He kicks the men while they are on the ground and then can be seen ordering the detainees back into the building under the damaged door. A few seconds later, as the two victims are crawling away from their captors and have reached the threshold of the building, the five border police officers visible at the scene raise their assault rifles, and the two detainees slump to the ground. “We’re appalled by the brazen killing by Israeli border police yesterday of two Palestinian men in Jenin in the occupied West Bank in yet another apparent summary execution,” said the UN human rights office spokesperson, Jeremy Laurence. “The execution documented today is the result of an accelerated process of dehumanisation of Palestinians and the complete abandonment of their lives by the Israeli regime,” Yuli Novak, the executive director of the B’Tselem human rights group, said. “In Israel, there is no mechanism that acts to stop the killing of Palestinians or is capable of prosecuting those responsible.” B’Tselem named the two men killed as Yusef ’Asa’sah, aged 39, and al-Muntaser bel-lah ‘Abdallah, aged 26. Israeli soldiers and police are rarely held accountable for the killings of Palestinians despite hundreds of allegations. B’Tselem stopped cooperating with the military review process in 2016, declaring it a “whitewash”. What sets the killings in Jenin on Thursday apart is the starkness of the video evidence. The IDF statement on the incident said it happened during an IDF and border police operation in the Jenin area, where “the forces operated to apprehend wanted individuals who had carried out terror activities, including hurling explosives and firing at security forces”. “The wanted individuals were affiliated with a terror network in the area of Jenin,” the statement said. “The forces entered the area, enclosed the structure in which the suspects were located, and initiated a surrender procedure that lasted several hours.” “Following the use of engineering tools on the structure, the two suspects exited,” it added. “Following their exit, fire was directed toward the suspects.” The statement added: “The incident is under review by the commanders on the ground and will be transferred to the relevant professional bodies.” However, Ben-Gvir issued his own statement saying he “provides full backing to border police members and IDF fighters who shot at wanted terrorists who came out of a building in Jenin”. The minister, who was convicted in 2007 of incitement to racism and supporting a terrorist organisation, said: “The fighters acted exactly as expected of them – terrorists must die.”

Putin praises Orbán’s ‘balanced’ position on Ukraine as leaders meet in Moscow – Europe live

in Brussels In language that will dismay many of Ukraine’s EU backers, the Flemish nationalist also suggested in his letter that Ukraine could lose the war. “In the very probable event Russia is ultimately not officially the losing party, it will, as history has shown in other cases, be legitimately asking for its sovereign assets to be returned,” De Wever said. EU leaders failed to agree on the idea in October, but are under added pressure to finalise the plan after the White House revealed its thinking on Russia’s frozen assets, which are mostly held in Europe, above all Belgium. The controversial US-led 28-point plan that emerged last week proposed that $100bn (£76bn) in frozen Russian assets would be invested in “US-led efforts to rebuild and invest in Ukraine”, with the US reaping 50% of profits from the venture. The rest of Russia’s frozen assets would be invested in a US-Russian investment vehicle focused on joint projects. These ideas are understood to have been removed from the latest version of the plan to end the war, but have underscored for European leaders the urgency of acting quickly. “The US proposal has maybe sharpened some European minds,” Latvia’s former prime minister Krišjānis Kariņš told the Guardian, saying he had been taken aback by the original proposals on the funds. There had been “the realisation that things could go very, very differently [so] better to keep those funds under European control and therefore take some decisions in Europe which would preclude anyone else getting their hands on the assets”, he said. The assets are seen as a key element of upping pressure on Russia, as well as a means of funding Ukraine’s defence at a time when many EU governments are grappling with tight budgets or deficits. EU leaders are due to discuss the idea at a summit on 18 and 19 December, having already pledged to meet Ukraine’s funding needs. Kyiv is estimated to need €136bn to maintain its defence and keep the country running in 2026 and 2027. The Belgian government said it wanted to see a legal text and has faulted the lack of detail about risk-sharing with the other 26 member states if the plan goes wrong. Brussels has also called for legal proposals on common EU borrowing to fund Ukraine, using unspent funds in the EU budget as the guarantee. De Wever argues this option would be cheaper than using the assets, once the risks are factored in. The commission has suggested money for Ukraine could be funded by common borrowing on capital markets, but member states are unenthusiastic. Germany, Sweden, as well as central and eastern European states and von der Leyen, argue the frozen assets plan is the best option.

Belgium hits back at EU plan to use frozen Russian assets to aid Ukraine

Belgium has hit back against an EU plan to use Russia’s frozen assets to aid Ukraine, describing the scheme as “fundamentally wrong” and throwing into doubt how Europe will fund Kyiv. In a sharply worded letter, Belgium’s prime minister, Bart De Wever, said the proposal violated international law and would instigate uncertainty and fear in financial markets, damaging the euro. “These risks are unfortunately not academic but real,” he wrote to the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen. Belgium hosts €183bn of Russian assets, about two-thirds of the Russian assets immobilised in the west, at the Brussels-based central securities depository Euroclear. De Wever’s intervention comes amid growing pressure on the EU to agree the use of Russia’s frozen assets to aid Ukraine, after a US-led plan to end the war called into question Europe’s control of the funds. The commission is expected to present imminently a draft legal text on using Russian assets immobilised in Europe as the basis for a €140bn (£122bn) loan for Ukraine. De Wever said the scheme posed “systemic risks for the EU as a financial marketplace” and warned that Euroclear could be sued by Russians with a claim on the assets, landing the Belgian government with a multibillion euro bill. He said he would not not sign off on the scheme unless all Belgium’s concerns were addressed, including “a full guarantee to be provided by willing member states” if the loan went wrong, according to the letter seen by the Guardian, which was first reported by Politico. The Flemish nationalist leader also argues that moving forward with the reparations loan plan would prevent the EU from reaching a peace deal, because the Russian assets would not be available for the reconstruction of Ukraine. In language that will dismay many of Ukraine’s EU backers, he suggested Ukraine could lose the war. “In the very probable event Russia is ultimately not officially the losing party, it will, as history has shown in other cases, be legitimately asking for its sovereign assets to be returned,” De Wever said. EU leaders failed to agree on the idea in October, but are under added pressure to finalise the plan after the White House revealed its thinking on Russia’s frozen assets, which are mostly held in Europe, above all Belgium. The controversial US-led 28-point plan that emerged last week proposed that $100bn (£76bn) in frozen Russian assets would be invested in “US-led efforts to rebuild and invest in Ukraine”, with the US reaping 50% of profits from the venture. The rest of Russia’s frozen assets would be invested in a US-Russian investment vehicle focused on joint projects. These ideas are understood to have been removed from the latest version of the plan to end the war, but have underscored for European leaders the urgency of acting quickly. “The US proposal has maybe sharpened some European minds,” Latvia’s former prime minister Krišjānis Kariņš told the Guardian, saying he had been taken aback by the original proposals on the funds. There had been “the realisation that things could go very, very differently [so] better to keep those funds under European control and therefore take some decisions in Europe which would preclude anyone else getting their hands on the assets”, he said. The assets are seen as a key element of upping pressure on Russia, as well as a means of funding Ukraine’s defence at a time when many EU governments are grappling with tight budgets or deficits. Following a meeting with EU foreign ministers on Wednesday, the EU’s high representative for foreign policy, Kaja Kallas, said using the frozen assets “would send the strongest message to Moscow, that it cannot wait us out”, adding that “we need to make this decision fast”. An EU diplomat said “the overwhelming majority of member states feel there is an increased urgency to take decisions”, referring to using the frozen assets for Ukraine. “Under any scenario there is a large need for financing for Ukraine.” EU leaders are due to discuss the idea at a summit on 18 and 19 December, having already pledged to meet Ukraine’s funding needs. Kyiv is estimated to need €136bn to maintain its defence and keep the country running in 2026 and 2027. The Belgian government said it wanted to see a legal text and has faulted the lack of detail about risk-sharing with the other 26 member states if the plan goes wrong. Brussels has also called for legal proposals on common EU borrowing to fund Ukraine, using unspent funds in the EU budget as the guarantee. De Wever argues this option would be cheaper than using the assets, once the risks are factored in. The commission has suggested money for Ukraine could be funded by common borrowing on capital markets, but member states are unenthusiastic. Germany, Sweden, as well as central and eastern European states and von der Leyen, argue the frozen assets plan is the best option. The commission says the scheme does not equate to confiscation of the Russian assets. EU diplomats admit the plan is fraught with complexity, not least because it requires a unanimous decision – including Hungary’s Kremlin-friendly government – to ensure the Russian assets remain frozen in perpetuity. Some say that even under a best-case scenario the frozen assets plan could take months to yield funds for Ukraine and that other short-term bridging loans could be needed.

Search under way after British man falls from cruise ship off Tenerife

A British cruise company has said it is working with authorities after a passenger on one of its ships was seen entering the water in the seas around the Canary Islands. Marella Cruises, which is operated by Tui UK, said the guest went overboard as the vessel was heading towards La Gomera, the second-smallest of the main islands in the Spanish archipelago off the coast of north-west Africa. Sky News said a search was under way for a 76-year-old British man who was reported missing from the Marella Explorer 2 on Thursday. The coastguard told the broadcaster it received an alert on Thursday at 9.48am local time from the ship, which was located 16.5 nautical miles (30.5km) north-west of Punta de Teno, Tenerife. A statement from Marella Cruises said: “We are deeply saddened to confirm that a guest was seen entering the water while the ship was on passage to La Gomera. “Our thoughts are with the individual and their loved ones during this difficult time. Our dedicated care team is supporting the family, providing assistance and comfort. We are working closely with local authorities and will continue to offer every possible support.”

St Vincent opposition party celebrates historic election win

The New Democratic party (NDP) in the Caribbean country of St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) is celebrating a historic landslide victory, taking 14 of 15 seats, according to preliminary results. The decisive vote was a crushing defeat for the Unity Labour party (ULP), which has been in power since 2001. The outgoing prime minister, Ralph Gonsalves, was the only ULP candidate to hold on to their seat in the elections where there was a severe decline in the party’s previous nine-seat majority. Gonsalves, the Caribbean’s longest-serving prime minister, will hand over the reins to the NDP’s Godwin Friday. “Looks like a giant has fallen in Vincy,” Peter Wickham, a regional political analyst, said on Facebook as it became apparent that Gonsalves, a prominent climate justice and slavery reparations advocate, was going to lose the elections. Other governments in the region congratulated Friday on the result. Jamaica’s prime minister, Andrew Holness, who is dealing with the devastation of Hurricane Melissa, described the election as “an important moment for the Vincentian people”. He said on X: “I wish Dr Friday every success as he undertakes the responsibility of national leadership, and I pray God’s guidance and wisdom upon him in the work ahead. Jamaica values its close friendship with St Vincent and the Grenadines, and we look forward to strengthening our cooperation as we continue to build a more resilient and prosperous Caribbean region together.” Taiwan’s ambassador to SVG, Fiona Fan, also congratulated Friday. The NDP has previously proposed severing relations with Taiwan and restoring ties with China. This year’s NDP manifesto made no mention of ending ties with Taipei, however, and the party had been criticised for failing to clarify its position on the issue. Under Gonsalves’s leadership, SVG has continued to cooperate with Taiwan over infrastructure, education and healthcare. The relationship has yielded benefits such as the scholarships, support for the international airport and help with the construction of a state-of-the-art hospital. “Taiwan and Saint Vincent share universal values such as democracy, freedom and human rights,” the Taiwan foreign ministry said on Friday. Friday, 66, a lawyer, took over leadership of the NDP in 2016 but has been in parliament since 2001. His party had promised to create “more and better-paid jobs”, address rising crime and violence and improve healthcare and infrastructure. It had also pledged to follow other Caribbean countries in allowing individuals to gain citizenship through significant financial contributions to the economy. SVG is the only independent state among the seven-member Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States not to offer citizenship by investment. Emanuel Quashie, an international relations lecturer at the University of the West Indies, has blamed the defeat on a combination of factors. “There was a lot of anti-Ralph sentiment given that he was in power for so long. Granted, he did do a lot in terms of transforming SVG,” he said. “He took us through the global financial crisis. He took us through the global pandemic. He took us through the La Soufrière volcanic eruption, Hurricane Beryl and previous climate change episodic events. But I think that wasn’t a concern for many of the voters either. I also think that the messaging from the ULP was not strong and convincing enough because I did not see them leaning enough on a lot of their wins.” The government’s vaccine mandate during the Covid-19 crisis also had a serious impact on support for the ULP, Quashie said. The mandate, which required most frontline workers to be jabbed, resulted in some losing their jobs. In 2021, Gonsalves was taken to hospital after being hit on the head with a stone in a demonstration against the vaccine mandate.

Ukraine corruption scandal threatens Zelenskyy’s special relationship with top aide

The revelation that anti-corruption police are searching the property of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, could have huge repercussions for the Ukrainian political scene and possibly for peace negotiations as well. It is hard to overstate the significance of Yermak in the Ukrainian political system. He combines multiple roles for Zelenskyy: most trusted sounding board, domestic political enforcer, controller of access to the president, main point of contact for foreign politicians, and chief peace negotiator. Yermak is such a powerful chief of staff that people who know how the president’s office operates describe his relationship with Zelenskyy as symbiotic. Those who have dealt with Yermak, both inside and outside Ukraine, describe him as a workaholic and a ruthless operator, who has moved against alternative centres of political influence in the country and has systematically worked to acquire political power. With such influence inevitably comes enemies, and there are few in the Ukrainian elite who have a positive view of Yermak, though many admire his work ethic and political skills. Foreign politicians have often appreciated knowing they can use Yermak as a direct line to the president, but some have found him a frustrating interlocutor, and figures in the Trump White House are known to have expressed a preference for dealing with Rustem Umerov, the head of Ukraine’s security council. Up to now, Zelenskyy has always resisted calls to fire Yermak or even clip his wings, but if Yermak is now caught up in a corruption scandal these are likely to get louder. Politically, getting rid of his chief of staff might be Zelenskyy’s smartest move, but those who know both men say the relationship is so close it is hard to imagine Zelenskyy taking that step. “I suppose it’s theoretically possible that Zelenskyy could function without him but in practice I can’t imagine that ever happening,” one former senior official confided a couple of months ago.

‘Foam that’s washed away’: support dissolves as Bolsonaro starts 27-year jail term

A few hours before Jair Bolsonaro was ordered to start his 27-year coup sentence in a parking space-sized room, Arley Xavier stood outside the former president’s new home putting a brave face on his leader’s bind. “It’s not over. There’s still so much Jair Messias Bolsonaro needs to do here in Brazil … No, it’s not over,” insisted the 21-year-old activist, urging conservatives to rise up against Bolsonaro’s imprisonment by flocking to the capital, Brasília, to protest. During his 2018-2023 presidency, the far-right populist drew huge, impassioned crowds to the streets of cities such as Brasília, Rio and São Paulo. But there was no sign of a rightwing rebellion this week as Bolsonaro languished in his room on a federal police base. Xavier, who had travelled to the capital for the occasion, was one of only about two dozen protesters outside as the disgraced politician faced up to a future of isolation inside. The mood in Bolsonaro’s leaderless camp was captured by the unusually rainy weather in Brazil’s often scorching midwest. Few believe the imprisonment of Bolsonaro and five co-conspirators – a sixth fled through the Amazon to the US – is curtains for Brazil’s far right. Followers hope Bolsonaro will receive an amnesty or pardon, particularly if a conservative wins next year’s presidential election. But the unexpectedly lethargic response to Bolsonaro’s incarceration has caused some to wonder if his grip over the Brazilian right has been shattered. According to one report, on top of his custodial sentence, the 70-year-old politician could be banned from seeking office until he is 105. Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo Bolsonaro, a congressman, has been living in the US since February and faces arrest if he returns home because of a supreme court investigation into allegations he attempted to interfere in his father’s coup trial. “I’d say the Bolsonaro family’s leadership of the right is coming to an end and you could say Bolsonarismo is coming to an end,” said one political scientist, Christian Lynch. Lynch recalled how Brazil’s current president, the leftwing veteran Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, was hoisted on to the shoulders of adoring supporters when he surrendered to police in 2018 over corruption charges that were later quashed. “It was like an enactment of the Passion of the Christ,” said Lynch who attributed that “spectacular scene” to Lula’s ability to build a highly organised and durable movement since his Workers’ party (PT) was founded in 1980. There were no such scenes this week as Bolsonaro vanished into custody. “Bolsonarismo is like foam that is washed away … The right will remain. But Bolsonarismo will pass,” said Lynch, who thought mainstream conservative leaders were glad to be rid of a politician they considered erratic, incompetent and extreme. Not everyone is certain Bolsonaro’s downfall is sealed, however. “I do sense this is a very dangerous moment for the Bolsonaro family. We are not seeing much support on the streets,” said Brian Winter, the editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly. Winter suspected Bolsonaro and his politician sons had “made a critical mistake” in recent months by relentlessly denouncing his treatment and lobbying Donald Trump to punish Brazil with sanctions and tariffs for the supposed “witch-hunt”. “Their messaging has been so focused on their own victimhood … that one wonders whether they have failed to talk enough about the challenges facing everyday Brazilians. Perhaps as a result they have lost their contact with the people,” he said. But many people wrote Lula’s political obituary after his arrest, only for him to be re-elected in 2022 after being imprisoned for 580 days. “It really did seem he was done and that he might die in prison – and, of course, history went in a different direction,” Winter said. Bernardo Mello Franco, the author of a new book about Bolsonaro called Architecture of Destruction, recalled how President Getúlio Vargas had also seemed finished when he was deposed in 1945 after 15 years in power. “He spent five years living in ostracism, forgotten on a ranch [in Brazil’s deep south]. Then all of a sudden he was elected president again [in 1950],” he said. “I’m not comparing Bolsonaro to Getúlio or Lula because I think he’s a politically smaller figure, in every imaginable sense,” Mello Franco added. But it was premature to declare him “dead and buried”, not least because parole laws mean Bolsonaro is likely to be released after six or seven years. “He’d be younger than Lula [80] is now when he left jail,” the writer said. Octavio Guedes, a commentator for the network GloboNews, doubted Bolsonaro would manage a similar resurrection. He saw the “zero public reaction” to his jailing as confirmation the “post-Bolsonaro” era had begun. But Guedes believed Bolsonaro’s movement would persist, led by another leader, possibly from outside the former president’s family. “Mussolini once said that he didn’t create fascism – he extracted it from the Italians’ unconscious. And I think it’s the same thing with Bolsonarismo. Bolsonaro dies, but these radical ideas and ideology are here to stay.” Outside the police compound where Bolsonaro is held, a few disciples insisted their community was down but not out. “In the coming days this movement will grow,” said one, Ronny de Souza, 43. “There are many courageous … real Christian men in this country … who don’t compromise on principles and values and have woken up and opened their eyes.” Two days after Bolsonaro’s imprisonment, the only trace of such an outcry was a lone protester who tried to chain himself to a pillar outside congress. Like his leader, he was arrested.