Dino becomes the STF’s main partner in combat against the right

On Tuesday (1st), the president of the CPMI on January 8, deputy Arthur Maia (União-BA), threatened to appeal to the Federal Supreme Court (STF) if the Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino, did not hand over the images from the cameras ministry’s security. Judging by the level of partnership between the Court and Dino in recent months, a STF decision that goes against the head of the Justice portfolio is unlikely.

Dino has been the main link between the Executive and the Supreme in initiatives against freedom of expression by the right in Brazil. Since he came to power, he has demonstrated alignment with the Court in speech and actions, and has frequently made gestures of solidarity with ministers.

Last Sunday (30), Dino turned to Twitter to draw attention to a statistic published by the site Power360according to which STF ministers would have been “hostilized” 74 times in the last 6 years.

The list includes mild insults – such as former president Jair Bolsonaro calling minister Luís Roberto Barroso an “imbecile” – and critical comments that would hardly be considered offensive in a functioning democracy, such as a group of Brazilian women in New York questioning Gilmar Mendes if ” crime pays” in Brazil. For Dino, however, these are “aggressions against the Constitution”.

“This is terrible for Brazil, as they are attempts to impede the free exercise of the Judiciary Power. They are not personal ‘hostilities’, they are aggressions against the Constitution”, he said via Twitter about the list.

Jurist Fabricio Rebelo, coordinator of the Center for Research in Law and Security (Cepedes), criticized the tweet in a response to the minister: “In authoritarian regimes, one of the most common strategies is to turn demonstrations against individuals invested in some power into ‘institutional attacks ‘, so that one can persecute and severely punish all dissenting voices”.

The alignment of the Minister of Justice with the judges of the STF is also manifested in seeing the top of state authorities as personifications of democracy. In the recent controversy at Rome’s international airport involving Alexandre de Moraes, Dino expressed the same opinion as STF Minister Ricardo Lewandowski: anyone who offends Moraes is against the democratic rule of law.

Dino’s portfolio also includes the Security Action Program (PAS), which provides for more severe punishment for those who organize “anti-democratic movements” or attack state authorities.

If approved, the project may enshrine in Brazilian legislation the authoritarianism of recent decisions by the Federal Supreme Court (STF), proposing an amendment to the Penal Code to provide for imprisonment “from 6 to 12 years for those who organize or lead anti-democratic movements” and “from 8 to 20 years for those who finance anti-democratic movements”.

The project generates fear because of the excessively subjective reading that can be made of the expression “anti-democratic movements”. The elasticity of interpretations has been one of the main ways of abuse committed by the STF in decisions.

Dino and STF coincide in the desire to regulate the internet and in the use of vague terms to criminalize the right

It is also evident the harmony between Dino and STF in the desire to regulate the internet, in the vision of how this should be done and in the use of vague terms that imply the need to criminalize the Brazilian right.

Both have established tortuous links between events such as the 8th of January, the tragedies in schools and the incident at the airport to reinforce the opinion that there is a new class of people in Brazil, whose ascension needs to be controlled by the State – and that, for Therefore, the Brazilian internet would need urgent regulation, and judicial decisions with elastic interpretations of the law would be justifiable against “extremism”.

In speeches by both, the line between what is considered “extremism” or “coupism” and what would be a legitimate right is hazy. Recently, by the way, Dino made a confusing grouping of elements that would integrate the “nazi-fascism of the 21st century”, putting in the same basket the perpetrators of attacks against children in schools and the couple who entered into conflict with Alexandre de Moraes.

“I believe that perpetrators of crimes against the democratic order and its guardians must be firmly punished, given the harmfulness of unlawful conduct and the relevance of the protected legal interest: the defense of the Constitution. I support bills, court decisions or investigations by the Federal Police that are consistent with this attitude of combating the very dangerous Nazi-fascism of the 21st century, which kills children in schools, destroys the Supreme Court building and thinks it is authorized to attack people for political reasons”, said Dino recently.

Previously, Dino had already stated that there is a “terrible flow of hate speech” on the networks and that this would be related to the recent tragedies that occurred in schools. This same causal link between the lack of internet regulation and the attacks on schools has already been established by Alexandre de Moraes.

Dino and STF also make it clear that they see the need for laws with an emphasis on controlling what has been called “disinformation”, “attacks on democracy” and “hate speech” on the networks. This was evident, for example, during the discussions on the Fake News PL vote in the Chamber and during the STF public hearing to re-discuss Article 19 of the Civil Rights Framework for the Internet – in which Dino participated.

Alignment can help Dino carve out a vacancy in the STF

Alignment with current ministers can help Dino carve out a spot on the Supreme Court. He is one of those quoted to take over Minister Rosa Weber’s chair, who retires this year.

report by People’s Gazette showed that Dino has gained sympathy within the STF for supporting the regulation of social networks. Also counting points in his favor is the growing collaboration of the Federal Police with Alexandre de Moraes in the investigations of anti-democratic acts and digital militias, especially after the 8th of January.

Dino remains shielded by Moraes in the investigation into the case, despite numerous attempts by right-wing parliamentarians to accuse him of failing to provide security at Praça dos Três Poderes on the day of the invasion.

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