Kim takes Lula to “Ministério da Verdade” for calling impeachment a coup

Federal deputy Kim Kataguiri (União Brasil-SP) and councilor from São Bernardo do Campo (SP) Glauco Braido (PSD-SP) called, this Thursday (26), the National Attorney of the Union for the Defense of Democracy – which has been called the “Ministry of Truth” – to investigate recent speeches by President Lula (PT) that classify Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment, in 2016, as a coup d’état. The body was created by the Lula government itself on the day of its inauguration, and had not yet been activated.

“You know that after an auspicious moment in Brazil, when we governed from 2003 to 2016, there was a coup d’état that overthrew comrade Dilma Rousseff”, said the PT member at an event with the president of Argentina Alberto Fernández in Buenos Aires.

In the representation sent to the “Ministério da Verdade”, Kataguiri and Braido state: “As is common knowledge, Brazilian democracy is being threatened by the phenomenon known as “fake news”, which is the deliberate propagation of false news, in order to confuse the public. When the President of the Republic starts to publicly say that impeachment – ​​a constitutionally foreseen procedure and an inseparable part of the system of checks and balances – is a “coup”, the population becomes disoriented regarding the functioning of democratic institutions and the constitutional framework. ”

The authors ask the attorney general of the Union, Jorge Messias, “judicial procedure in disfavor of the President of the Republic” and close the document saying: “We are sure that the performance of the aforementioned attorney and of the AGU as a whole will be republican and that Your Excellency it will not let such disinformation go unpunished just for the simple fact that the person responsible is the President of the Republic; after all, as Your Excellency well knows, no one is above the law.”

On Twitter, Kataguiri commented that this “will be a crucial test for the ‘Ministry of Truth’”. “We will see if the National Prosecutor’s Office of the Union for the Defense of Democracy will really fulfill its role in combating fake news, or if it will just be used as a mechanism to persecute political opponents.”

Known as the “Ministry of Truth” in reference to a body created at the service of Big Brother in the novel “1984”, by George Orwell, the new prosecutor was established on the first day of the current government via decree. It may, among other things, “represent the Union, judicially and extrajudicially, in demands and procedures for responding to and confronting misinformation about public policies”. This means that any politician will have at his disposal a body of the Union capable of representing him in court in any case that fits into the broad and generic concept of “disinformation”.

During his inauguration ceremony, on January 2, the new AGU gave clues about the usefulness of the new device: “Attacks on authorities that we have witnessed in recent years will no longer be tolerated”, he said.

For lawyers consulted by People’s Gazette at the beginning of the month, the body will make public authorities more protected from criticism than private citizens themselves, will facilitate the practice of censorship by the state and can be used to shape speeches.

Read the representation against Lula in full through this link.