Almost 70% of Brazilians support limiting individual decisions in the STF

According to a Genial/Quaest survey, released this Thursday (23), almost 70% of Brazilians support the PEC, which limits individual decisions by ministers of the Federal Supreme Court (STF).

2 thousand people were interviewed between the 19th and 22nd of October. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.

In total, 68% of those interviewed said that Supreme Court ministers should have fixed terms of office; 66% agreed with PEC 8/2021, which was approved in the Senate and proposes limits to monocratic decisions in the STF; and 62% said they did not agree with the decriminalization of marijuana for personal consumption, an issue discussed by the STF even with contrary decisions in Congress.

One day after the vote in the Senate, which approved PEC 8/2021, STF ministers harshly criticized the senators.

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.

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.

After the repercussion of the criticism, the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), said that he was “attacked” by Supreme Court ministers for free and stated that the Senate has “civic courage”.

Also on Thursday (23), senator Jorge Seif (PL-RJ) said that STF ministers called senators to pressure them against voting on the PEC.