Barroso is booed and cites dictatorship and Bolsonarism in UNE Congress – 07/13/2023 – Politics

Minister Luís Roberto Barroso, of the STF (Federal Supreme Court), was booed by a group of students during the opening of the 59th Congress of the UNE (National Union of Students) this Wednesday (12), in Brasília, and responded by citing the struggle against the military dictatorship (1964-1985) and the defense of democracy.

“Only dictatorship closes Congress, only dictatorship hunts down mandates, only dictatorship creates censorship, only dictatorship has political prisoners”, he said in one of the passages in which the speech was not drowned out by the sound of boos. “We’ve come a long way for people to be able to speak out any way they want.”

He also stated that being at the UNE Congress means rediscovering his own past of confronting authoritarianism and intolerance.

Faced with the students’ protest, Barroso defended the right to demonstrate and stated that “screaming instead of listening” and not putting arguments on the table is Bolsonarism. “That’s the recent past that we’re trying to get rid of.”

The demonstration was organized by the Faísca Revolucionaria group, which opposes the UNE leadership and is formed by Trotskyist students linked to the MRT (Revolutionary Workers Movement).

They took a banner calling the minister “an enemy of nursing and the organizer of the 2016 coup”. Students also carried signs in defense of the floor.

“We are not allied with those who attack us and we do not accept that the majority of UNE is together with the right, with those who attack workers, indigenous peoples and students”, says the manifesto of the current. “It is essential to fight for a UNE that is independent of the broad front government and the regime”.

In September last year, Barroso suspended the minimum amount for nursing. On May 15th, however, he re-established the wage floor. The decision was taken after the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) published a bill approved by Congress that releases R$ 7.3 billion to fund the measure.

According to UNE management, it was the first time, since redemocratization, that the entity’s congress received a minister from the STF.

The Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino, also participated in the opening of the congress and defended the fight against social inequality, the confrontation with the power of the big technology companies that “transport extremism and hatred” and the consolidation of democracy.

“Democracy is still at risk and we have to continue with social mobilization. Maintain popular unity against fascism in Brazil,” he said.

Lula will participate in the congress this Thursday (13), starting at 6 pm, the time when a political act in defense of universities is scheduled. Ministers Márcio Macêdo (General Secretariat of the Presidency), Luciana Santos (Science and Technology) and the former president of Uruguay, Pepe Mujica, are also expected to attend.