After approval of PEC, STF ministers attack Legislature

Ministers of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) harshly criticized this Thursday (23) the approval, by the Senate, of the Constitutional Amendment Proposal (PEC) that limits the individual decisions of ministers, which took place this Wednesday (22), by 52 votes in favor and 18 against. The project will still be analyzed by the Chamber of Deputies before coming into force, but there is still no date for voting.

The criticism of the senators, which occurs at a time when demands from parliamentarians regarding abuses of power by ministers are growing, was made at the beginning of this Thursday’s session. Minister Luís Roberto Barroso began the sequence of attacks on the Legislature by stating that the court “resisted the acts of January 8” and that he now “views the legislative advances” in its actions with concern.

“There is no institutionality that can resist if each sector that feels upset by the court’s decisions wants to change the structure and functioning of the Court. Institutions are not sacrificed on the altar of political convenience,” he said.

The minister stated that the Senate and its members “deserve all the institutional consideration” of the Court, while the STF needs to consider the decisions of the legislature. However, he says there needs to be an “institutional dialogue” between the two powers.

“In this spirit of institutional dialogue, the Supreme Court sees no reason for constitutional changes that aim to alter the rules of its operation”, he said.

Barroso, who also presides over the Supreme Court, stated that the country has more “important and urgent demands” than discussing supposed “Brazil’s priority problems that are in the Federal Supreme Court”, highlighting issues that would be left aside as organized crime advances. and climate change.

The president of the Court highlighted that the suggested changes had already been “mostly supported by recent changes to the Supreme Court’s own regulations”. “There is no reason to change what has been working well”, he concluded.

Gilmar Mendes raises his tone further and says that “STF does not tolerate intimidation”

After Barroso’s speeches, the court’s dean, minister Gilmar Mendes, was more emphatic in his speeches and said that the approval of the PEC was a “resurrection of a previously buried corpse” with just a few votes above the limit defined by the Constitution. The criticism was in reference to another similar bill that was rejected by Congress in 2020.

“This Federal Supreme Court is prepared, and I have no doubt, to face once again, and if necessary, the disproportionate and unconstitutional attacks now, eventually, coming from the Legislative Branch”, he said.

He told Barroso that “it takes pride to reject this type of threat very clearly, very clearly: this house is not made up of cowards, this house is not made up of fearful people. […] This Federal Supreme Court does not tolerate intimidation.”

“We don’t joke about impeachment. This is a serious measure, and it needs to be handled by serious people”, fired Barroso against parliamentarians who advocate the impeachment of Court ministers. He also said that any cases involving magistrates’ responsibility will be judged under a “judicial review that guarantees due legal process, preventing lame accusations from clouding judicial independence.”

When trying to defend the Supreme Court, Gilmar evokes the Court’s offensive against the “Republic of Curitiba”

At another point in his speech against the Legislative Power, Mendes stated that the Court “removed from the institutional scenario the threat to countless public agents represented by so many false heroes such as those who made up the so-called ‘Republic of Curitiba’” – the nickname given to the capital of Paraná due to to Operation Lava Jato.

“It is curious, perhaps ironic, that after the good services provided by this Supreme Court over the last few heroic, difficult years, […] Now it is discovered that Brazil’s biggest problem is the Federal Supreme Court. That the greatest threat to democracy is the Federal Supreme Court”, he said, citing the actions of ministers Dias Toffoli and Alexandre de Moraes in recent inquiries such as the so-called “fake news inquiry”, which is the target of several criticisms for alleged unconstitutionality and abusive conduct. of ministers.

Also according to the minister, if the PEC that limits monocratic decisions had already been in force, policies “highly harmful to society” would not have been prevented by the Court, such as the flexibility of access to weapons through decrees signed by former president Jair Bolsonaro ( PL), the “indiscriminate opening of commerce during the height of the pandemic, and the encouragement of ineffective treatments to combat the virus, whose emblem is the famous chloroquine”.

“This court, in the very recent past, did not succumb to the liberal populism responsible for the tragic January 8th. This same Court will not submit to the authoritarian heel wherever it comes from, even if hidden by the pseudo-representation of eventual majorities”, Mendes concluded at the end of the speech, adding that “the authors of this undertaking began it disguised as presumptive statesmen, and they closed it melancholically as unequivocal moral pygmies.”

Moraes joins the chorus and suggests that the Court would overturn the PEC if approved in the Chamber

Minister Alexandre de Moraes was another to criticize the approval of PEC 8/2021 by the Senate. He pointed out that improving institutions is important, as long as they do not hide “attacks on the independence of the Judiciary”. The judge reinforced Gilmar Mendes’ speech and said that the Court is not made up of “cowards” nor “fearful”.

“Improving institutions are important instruments of democracy, but not when they hide insinuations, intimidation and attacks on the independence of the Judiciary and, mainly, the independence of this Federal Supreme Court,” he said.

“This Court is not made up of cowards or fearful people. The Constitution guaranteed the independence of the Judiciary, prohibiting any constitutional change that disrespects this independence and disrespects the separation of Powers”, he highlighted.

Moraes also said that the Court will defend the guarantee of independence of the Judiciary. “I am absolutely certain that this Court will demonstrate courage in defending this main guarantee of the Judiciary, not in favor of the Federal Supreme Court or in favor of judges, but in defense of society, with the independence of its judges”, he added.