In a message to Lula, Gilmar Mendes says that the concept of democracy “is not relative”

The Minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) Gilmar Mendes countered the statement by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), who stated that “the concept of democracy is relative” when answering a question about the dictatorship in Venezuela.

On Thursday (29), in an interview with Rádio Gaúcha, Lula said, when asked why he did not call the Chavista regime a dictatorship, that “the concept of democracy is relative”. This Sunday (2), in a series of publications on Twitter, Mendes stated that “the concept of democracy is not relative”.

“After overcoming the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century, democracy cannot seriously be conceived as an empty formula, able to accept any content”, wrote the STF minister.

“A political regime in which, for example, the Chief Executive uses military power to subjugate Congress and the Judiciary (and to ensure the physical elimination of citizens who dare to denounce dictatorial abuses) is not democratic,” added Mendes.

“The holding of elections, in such a hypothetical scenario, could never guarantee the democratic character of a political regime: voters should not choose between government and opposition, but only endorse the will of the dictator on duty”, argued the STF minister.

On Friday (30), Venezuelan deputy José Brito released a document from the Comptroller General of Venezuela, which confirmed that former deputy María Corina Machado, one of the main names in the opposition to the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro, is prevented from running to elected office for 15 years.

The body of the Chavista dictatorship claimed that Machado’s ineligibility was determined after a property investigation that pointed to acts against Venezuela’s “public ethics, administrative morality, the rule of law, peace and sovereignty”.

On Twitter, the former deputy denied the accusations and said she intended to continue running in the Venezuelan opposition primaries, which will be held in October.

Gilmar Mendes concluded the posts on Twitter by recalling that in Brazil it was “only after much blood was spilled that the National Constituent Assembly of 1988 adopted a democratic political model based on values ​​and principles that cannot be relativized, such as the separation of powers and fundamental rights. ”.

“The 1988 Constitution requires us not to be tolerant with those who preach its destruction; and it also demands that the memory of those who died fighting for today’s democracy not be glorified”, concluded the minister.