Former governors of Paraná resume pension with STF measure – 05/18/2023 – Power

Former governors of Paraná will again receive a monthly and lifetime payment known as “special retirement” following a decision by the STF (Federal Supreme Court).

By majority, the ministers of the Second Panel of the court determined the immediate restoration of payment of the benefit, which had been interrupted in 2020 after another court decision.

The State Attorney General’s Office, which represents the government of Paraná, reported that the state “will comply with the decision of the STF and will once again pay the subsidy to the seven former governors” who filed a claim with the court.

At the beginning of 2020, the seven former governors received around R$ 30,000 from the lifetime pension. The amount, as mandated by state legislation, was equivalent to a salary for a judge at the Court of Justice of Paraná.

Currently, the base subsidy of a judge is R$ 37,000. Considering the current value for five former governors, the return of the benefit could cost the state coffers more than R$ 2 million per year. Two of those claiming the return of payment died in 2021 — Jaime Lerner and Emílio Hoffmann Gomes.

The Supreme Court’s decision took place in a virtual session concluded on April 4, in the wake of a complaint filed by the former heads of the Executive.

“There is no moral crusade that justifies, in the light of constitutional guarantees, the abrupt suppression of benefits received in good faith for decades by elderly people, without conditions for reintegration into the labor market”, wrote Minister Gilmar Mendes in his vote.

In Paraná, payments to former governors had been cut in February 2020, in the wake of a December 2019 decision by the STF plenary that declared the benefit unconstitutional. Other Brazilian states also had their compensation overturned by the court in recent years.

The article of the Constitution of Paraná providing for the budget for former chiefs of the Executive was contested by the OAB (Order of Lawyers of Brazil) in early 2011, when the entity filed a Direct Action of Unconstitutionality in the STF.

The matter was only judged in 2019, when ministers overturned the article. The case became final (when there is no longer any possibility of appeal) in August 2020.

At that time, most ministers also understood that the amounts already paid up to that point did not need to be returned, simply interrupting new payments.

But a group of former beneficiaries filed a claim to continue receiving the money. The appeal was proposed at the end of 2020 by seven former occupants of the position: Hoffmann Gomes, Lerner, Orlando Pessuti, Beto Richa (now federal deputy for the PSDB), João Elisio Ferraz de Campos, Paulo Pimentel and Mário Pereira.

Among those former governors who received retirement in early 2020, only Roberto Requião (today in the PT) is not on the list of authors of the complaint.

One of the lawyers working on the case in defense of the former governors, Marilda de Paula Silveira told the Sheet that there is still an appeal from the Attorney General’s Office pending. The defense awaits the outcome of the claim.

“There is nothing more impactful and that requires modulation of effects than advanced age added to the nutritional nature of the funds received in good faith, for years, which one intends to suspend. While the impact on these people’s lives is enormous, the same does not can be said about the impact on public finances”, the lawyers wrote at the end of 2020.

Deputy Beto Richa, 57, is the only one among the authors of the complaint who has not yet reached the age of 60. The report sought him this Wednesday (17) through his advisory, but there was no response until the publication of the text.

At first, the defense of the politicians did not obtain a favorable decision: the rapporteur for the case, Minister Cármen Lúcia, did not follow up. But there was a regimental grievance (type of appeal) and, when the case was taken to trial by the Second Panel, in 2021, Gilmar Mendes asked for a review.

The subject returned to the class’s agenda only recently, in an open virtual session at the end of March, and with Gilmar’s vote in favor of the former governors. The divergence in relation to the rapporteur was followed by two other ministers, Ricardo Lewandowski (who retired in April) and Kassio Nunes Marques.

Minister Edson Fachin pointed out his suspicion in the case, as he had already done in 2019.

By decision of the Second Panel, the act of the Government of Paraná that excluded pensions from the payroll becomes null. But the forecast of the benefit in an article of the Constitution of Paraná remains unconstitutional, according to the 2019 decision.

Last month, the State Attorney’s Office filed a motion for clarification in the complaint, alleging that it was not even heard on the matter.

State attorney César Binder argued that the effects of the declaration of unconstitutionality have already been “duly appreciated” by the plenary of the STF. The embargoes were filed at the end of April and there is still no decision on the appeal.

The state body highlights the approval of the constitutional amendment in 2019, at the initiative of Governor Ratinho Junior (PSD), which extinguished the lifetime subsidy for all future former governors.

CHRONOLOGY OF THE CASE

• January 2011: The Federal Council of the OAB files an ADI (Direct Action of Unconstitutionality) in the Supreme Court contesting the special pensions paid to former governors of Paraná, provided for in the State Constitution.

• December 2019: The plenary of the STF meets the request of the OAB and declares unconstitutional the article of the State Constitution that provides for the benefit. And the final and unappealable decision (when there is no longer an appeal) takes place in August 2020.

• February 2020: Due to the decision of the STF, the Government of Paraná excludes special pensions from the monthly payroll.

• November 2020: Dissatisfied with the decision, seven former governors of Paraná filed a complaint with the STF to try to recover the benefit, annulling the act of the government of Paraná. The group argued that the benefit cannot be taken away from the elderly (over 60 years old) and super elderly (over 80 years old) who have received payments for years and in good faith.

• February 2021: Rapporteur for the case at the STF, Justice Cármen Lúcia denies following up on the complaint of the former chiefs of the Executive, justifying that the plenary has already addressed the modulation of the effects of that decision of 2019. The group files a regimental appeal (type of appeal) against the minister’s decision and, when the case arrives for judgment in the Second Panel of the STF, minister Gilmar Mendes asks for a review.

• April 2023: In a virtual session opened in March 2023, Gilmar Mendes includes his vote in favor of the former governors’ appeal and his disagreement with the rapporteur is followed by two other ministers, Ricardo Lewandowski and Kassio Nunes Marques. The decision determines the immediate reestablishment of payment of benefits granted to the group of former governors. The State Attorney General’s Office filed a motion for clarification against the decision.