Barroso, from the STF, confesses that he fought against Bolsonaro: “we defeated Bolsonarism”

Minister Luis Roberto Barroso, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), said on Wednesday night (12) that he faced and defeated “Bolsonarism”. The statement came after being booed by a group of students at the opening of the 59th Congress of the National Union of Students (UNE).

The magistrate was booed because of his performance in court cases, such as the nursing floor and the impeachment of former president Dilma Rousseff (PT), in 2016.

“Nothing that is happening here is strange to me. I’ve already faced the dictatorship and I’ve already faced Bolsonarism. I’m not afraid of boos because we have a country to build. We defeated Bolsonarism to allow democracy and free demonstration by all people,” he said.

In addition to the boos, the students raised a banner criticizing the minister, which said “enemy of nursing and organizer of the 2016 coup”, as well as posters in defense of the minimum floor for the category suspended by Barroso in September last year, but re-established in May.

“I was the one who got the nursing money because I didn’t have any money. I am not afraid of boos, because we have a country to build”, he added.

Still in response to the protests, Barroso said that Brazil has come a “long way” so that people can demonstrate as they wish, and that only “dictatorship closes Congress, revokes mandates, creates censorship, [e] there are political prisoners”.

The magistrate was not intimidated by the boos and said that he would leave the congress “with renewed energies for agreement and disagreement, because this is the democracy that we conquered”. The protest was organized by the group called Faísca Revolucionaria, which opposes the current UNE leadership and is formed by Trotskyist students linked to the Revolutionary Workers Movement (MRT).

The group also protested against Minister Carlos Fávaro, of Agriculture. In a post on Instagram, the movement said it was “ashamed” and that the UNE demonstrates “the total willingness of the majority to link up with central figures, totally alien to the interests of students, workers and indigenous and oppressed peoples”.

The UNE event runs until the 15th of July.