ABSTRACT
The goal of this article is to point out the role played by the ultraliberal counter-public in calling and directing the first protests for Dilma Rousseff´s impeachment. In order to do so, I tried to stress the relevance of using the concept of counter-public to characterize the dynamics that permeated the experiences of members of organizations and other spaces of debate related to ultraliberalism. After a triangulation of empirical data, a historical reconstruction was performed, and the existence of an ultraliberal counter-audience was proven by the content of in-depth interviews with militants. It can be concluded that the early establishment of this group on the internet started the creation of an ultraliberal counter-public based on the existence of a collective identity shared by its members. The permanence and institutionalization of such counter-public were facilitated by the organizational and financial support of a pre-existing network of liberal think tanks in the country, enabling its members to convene and lead the first pro-impeachment protests of 2014. This was due to changes in the structure of political opportunities related to the Brazilian June 2013 uprisings and Dilma Rousseff’s reelection in 2014.
ultraliberalism; counter-public; June 2013 protests in Brazil; Brazilian 2014 elections; impeachment