Bolsonaro says Barroso acted in the TSE to defeat him with “relentless persecution”

Former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) said this Tuesday (18) that the Minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) Luís Roberto Barroso acted with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) to defeat him in the 2022 elections. on the 12th, Barroso said that he faced and defeated “Bolsonarism” in a speech at the opening of the 59th Congress of the National Union of Students (UNE).

“We defeated censorship, we defeated torture, we defeated Bolsonarism, to allow democracy and the free manifestation of all people”, said the minister at the event. For the former president, the “us” of Barroso’s speech refers to the performance of the magistrate before the TSE.

“The minister, obviously, did not go to the streets to ask for a vote for Lula, which is obvious that he voted for Lula, given what he said. He is a person who does not gather crowds anywhere, perhaps not even the people from the condominium itself, if he lives in a building. So there’s only one answer: it was with his work within the TSE. After all, he as minister of the TSE created that electoral transparency commission back there, which had nothing to do with transparency “, said Bolsonaro in an interview with The State Play.

In 2021, Barroso created the Election Transparency Commission composed of technology experts, oversight bodies and representatives of civil entities to monitor procedures for preparing electronic ballot boxes for elections. At the time, the Minister was the President of the Electoral Court.

The former president said he faced “relentless persecution” during the election campaign. He further stated that the Electoral Court “behaved like a political party”. “The TSE behaved like a very active political party against me. He said that he defeated the candidate Jair Bolsonaro at their polls, now, in the streets we were not defeated”, he added.

After the repercussion of the statement, the STF minister said that by using the expression “we defeat Bolsonarism”, he was referring to “the coup-mongering and violent extremism that manifested itself on January 8 and that corresponds to a minority”.

“I never intended to offend the former President’s 58 million voters or to criticize a conservative and democratic worldview, which is perfectly legitimate. I have the greatest respect for all voters and for all democratic politicians, whether they are conservative, liberal or progressive”, said Barroso, in a new note released by the STF on the last day 13.