Sunday February 14, 2021, 9:30 p.m. Suddenly, a batucada demon shakes the Sambodrome, the avenue of the parade. Thousands of feathered dancers, erected on floats ten meters high, dance in rhythm, to the cheers of 10 million revelers present on the stands and in the streets. The biggest celebration of humanity, the Rio Carnival can begin.
At least, that’s what should have happened. But now, the Covid-19 has been there: more than 17,000 victims in Rio, 230,000 in Brazil. Postponed for the first time, the 2021 edition of Carnival is finally canceled. Never before in the history of the “wonderful city”. “A very sad decision, which hurts me, strikes me in the heart… but an inevitable decision. There was no alternative ”, sighs the mayor, Eduardo Paes.
This February 14 should have been a great day for him. A coronation, even, for this 51-year-old “King of Rio”, a major and controversial figure in Brazilian politics, already mayor of the city between 2009 and 2016 at the time of the Olympic Games, and reelected in November 2020 in a chair in the same position, with over 64% of the vote – he took office in January.
“I am a carnival mayor! “, launches straight away the city councilor, crazy about carnival since his youth, who receives in his modern offices, located – luck does things well – close to the Sambodrome. He himself regularly pushes his passion to parade in the middle of floats, alongside members of the samba school he cherishes, the legendary Portela, with the blue and white flag.
“Duda” is a Carioca to the end of the Havaianas flip flops. In a city that has become over the years very provincial, the Mayor does not bother with chic. Joker, jovial, Eduardo Paes speaks loudly, sniffs loudly, beats the countryside in Bermuda shorts and Panama hat, not hesitating to sing, on occasion, samba tunes, a beer in hand. “Duda”, apparently, is initially seen as a nice guy.
But he is also, and above all, a workaholic. Perfectionist, hyperactive, sometimes angry, the man wears the pale face of those who never go to the beach. Her days start at 5 a.m. and end late at night, to the rhythm of a hectic schedule, leaving little room for family life. “On my children’s holiday albums [deux ados], there are almost no pictures of me ”, he confided in 2016 to the review Piaui.
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