Twenty months into the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro , Brazil is on the brink of a democratic disaster.

More than 100,000 Brazilians have died of COVID-19, a pandemic the far-right president largely dismissed as a conspiracy. The economy is approaching a free-fall. And Bolsonaros authoritarian attempts to seize control of the worlds fourth-largest democracy have pushed Brazil into a political crisis .

As the trio of crises hammers the country, Bolsonaro has not only abdicated any responsibility to govern his country, he has used the turmoil to ramp up his attacks on its most vital democratic institutions. In May, the scandal-plagued president even contemplated sending the military to shut down Brazils Supreme Court as it continued investigations into his family and network of advisers, according to an explosive report last week by the news magazine Revista Piau.

This is the worst crisis Brazil has faced in its history, said James Green, a Brazilian studies professor at Brown University who lived in Brazil during the military dictatorship that ruled the country from 1964 to 1985. Its a political crisis, an economic crisis, and a public health crisis. Ive thought about this a lot, and I cant think of another moment when the country was in worse shape than it is right now.

Bolsonaros improbable triumph two years ago generated widespread fears that he would be the most dangerous of the quasi-populist leaders whose victories triggered talk of a global democratic recession , and he has consistently proved his most alarmist observers right.

Now, the crises plaguing Brazil, along with Bolsonaros authoritarian response to them, have turned that concern into an outright panic that the countrys democracy may not be strong enough to withstand the onslaught it is facing.

Brazilian democracy has been tested to its limit by a government that uses democracy to destroy democracy, Felipe Santa Cruz, the president of the Brazilian Bar Association, said in a recent interview with HuffPost Brazil.

Subverting Justice

Bolsonaros approval ratings plummeted this spring as he fumbled the pandemic during which he fired one health minister and drove another to quit and did away with any remaining pretense that he was the anti-corruption zealot he fashioned himself to be during the 2018 campaign. In early May, Bolsonaro effectively forced out Justice Minister Sergio Moro, the former judge behind Brazils massive anti-corruption efforts who, in resigning his post, accused Bolsonaro of improperly intervening in the Federal Police, Brazils equivalent of the FBI.

Moro stopped short of accusing Bolsonaro of interfering to protect himself and his sons who are facing police investigations. But the insinuation was obvious. His departure, and the Supreme Court investigation into the allegations that commenced, set up a tense standoff between Bolsonaro and Brazils judicial branch.

Over the last two months, corruption investigations from the Supreme Court and Brazils Federal Police have closed in on Bolsonaro, his advisers and his family, including two sons who are also elected officials. And amid reports that the Supreme Court wanted to seize the cellphones of Bolsonaro and his son Carlos (a Rio de Janeiro lawmaker and the presidents social media guru) as part of an investigation into allegations that he spearheaded a massive online disinformation campaign to help his father win the election, Bolsonaro told advisers on May 22 that he planned to have the military depose all 11 justices and replace them with friendly appointees until everything is in order, Revista Piau reported.

The report confirmed fears of a possible military intervention that increased after the military men in Bolsonaros Cabinet began to issue warnings, this spring, that the judges efforts risked causing a democratic rupture with unforeseen consequences, assertions that rattled a country still haunted by memories of the dictatorship .

He would love to stage this kind of military intervention, Alessandro Molon, the opposition leader in Brazils lower house of Congress, told HuffPost in June, as worries mounted across Brazil that Bolsonaro might be plotting his own coup against Congress and the Supreme Court. Fortunately, I dont think theres enough support for that in society, among our people, among our institutions, in public opinion.

Molon has proved correct, at least for the time being: Although one of the former generals advising Bolsonaro favored the plan to shut down the Supreme Court because it was the only way to reestablish the authority of the president, others succeeded in talking down Bolsonaro, Revista Piau reported.

But the threat Bolsonaro poses to Brazilian democracy has not subsided since May, said Oliver Stuenkel, a professor at the Getlio Vargas Foundation in So Paulo. Instead of sending in the tanks to blast away at Brazils democratic institutions, Bolsonaro has resumed his efforts to usurp them.

The risk to democracy is as high as it was a couple months ago, Stuenkel said. Its just that hes currently seeking to undermine it from a different angle.