Bolsonaro has trial at the TSE with a less adverse scenario – 10/09/2023 – Power

Former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) faces, this Tuesday (10), a new trial at the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) regarding conduct adopted by him in the electoral campaign, but this time under a less adverse scenario than in June .

That month, the TSE declared, by 5 votes to 2, Bolsonaro ineligible for eight years, due to attacks and lies against the electoral system in a meeting with ambassadors.

Now, the court will analyze three more actions involving the former president’s campaign. Contrary to what happened in the previous trial, this time the Electoral Attorney General’s Office, in an opinion signed by the deputy attorney general, Paulo Gonet, expressed its rejection of them.

Two new Aijes (Judicial Electoral Investigation Actions) presented by the PDT against Bolsonaro will be considered by the TSE in conjunction with an action taken by the coalition that elected President Lula (PT). This piece is signed by Cristiano Zanin, at the time the PT’s lawyer and now minister of the STF (Supreme Federal Court).

One of the PDT’s actions states that Bolsonaro used his weekly lives — broadcast from the Alvorada and Planalto palaces — to ask for votes for himself and political allies, using public structure and “reaching the height of showing the ‘santinho’ of each of them “.

There are screenshots of the former president’s broadcasts and reproductions of speeches he said. For example: “Quickly guys, let’s go to the free election time, okay? Sorry. There will be a lack of people, they will complain, but we’ll leave it until next week. There are some candidacies in Brazil that I ask for support.”

In another PDT action, still about lives, the party’s lawyers say that there was abuse of political power and improper use of the media in the use of Palácio da Alvorada (official residence of the president) and Planalto (headquarters of the Executive) to request votes and display proposals.

The third action, by Lula’s coalition, states that Bolsonaro committed abuse of political power by carrying out, as president, acts in support of his candidacy for re-election in the Planalto and Alvorada dependencies.

An example of support from the governors of Roraima, Goiás, Acre, Mato Grosso, Rondônia and Amazonas is cited as an example.

In addition, events with governors Romeu Zema (Minas Gerais) and Cláudio Castro (Rio de Janeiro) are mentioned, as well as country music artists.

In theory, these actions could also lead to new declarations of Bolsonaro’s ineligibility. But the assessment of people who follow the processes closely is that the former president should not be the target of such severe punishment. There are also interlocutors who are betting on the rejection of the actions.

According to these people, the most likely thing is that, in case of conviction, there will be a maximum fine. And, even if Bolsonaro is sentenced to ineligibility again, there should be no change in relation to the period for which he is already prevented from running.

The diagnosis this time is that the conduct pointed out in the Aijes under analysis are not as serious as those that were judged in June by the TSE. Nor did they seriously interfere with the normality of the elections.

In June, the TSE’s understanding was that Bolsonaro committed abuse of political power and misused the media by holding, in July 2022, a meeting with foreign ambassadors in Alvorada. On that occasion, Bolsonaro told lies about the country’s electronic voting system and attacked TSE ministers.

In response to the actions that will be judged this Tuesday, Bolsonaro’s lawyer, Tarcísio Vieira, said that “official transmission” was not used to ask for votes, because it was a publication transmitted on social networks for the former president’s personal use.

The lawyer also stated that the Palácio da Alvorada is the home of the President of the Republic and that his conduct “is no different from that of any other candidate, during the election period, who has recorded lives at his usual residence”.

“Hence, it is possible, from now on, to correlate the right to privacy (or private life) of the person being investigated, resulting from the fundamental right to be left alone in the heart of one’s home (house, in the constitutional sense) , with its also fundamental right to free expression of thought”, said Tarcísio.

He mentioned that former president Dilma Rousseff (PT), when in government, used the halls of Palácio da Alvorada to hold a virtual chat with internet users, “potential voters”, to talk about the Mais Médicos program.

Regarding the action signed by Zanin, Bolsonaro’s defense said that there was no abusive use of public property, nor the practice of an illicit act, and that one cannot “disregard the right to freedom of expression and the simple and spontaneous individual manifestation of personalities mentioned”.

The expectation is that the judgment of these actions will be faster than the one that condemned Bolsonaro to ineligibility in June. That vote lasted four sessions.

The new wave of actions against Bolsonaro at the TSE will be judged a month before minister Benedito Gonçalves leaves his post as court inspector.

Benedito, rapporteur of the cases, remains at the Internal Affairs Department until November 9th, and his successor is Minister Raul Araújo Filho, known for his proximity to the conservative political field. In June, Araújo voted in favor of Bolsonaro and ended up winning.

For the following week, on the 17th, two other actions related to last year’s presidential campaign are scheduled, this time against Lula.