‘Lula has the right to choose a minister of the STF’ – 03/22/2023 – Conrado Hübner Mendes

Who got Lula out of prison was not the boldness of a millennium Rui Barbosa. Nor a formidable legal thesis, an innovative procedural resource. The revelations of Vaza Jato, the change of situation, the confirmation of the abuses of Lava Jato, the magistocratic volatility, the growing repugnance of Moro and Dallagnol, reduced to street corner Bolsonaristas, did their part. It was mobilization that laid bare the car wash debacle, not the ingenuity of a lawyer.

But the myth of a lawyer’s legal sagacity, together with the myth of his commitment to the cause, which is unknown, led the public sphere to take for granted the appointment of Lula’s criminalist to the STF. It would serve as a kind of insurance against a new Salvationist outbreak that overthrows the government.

A certain partisan militancy is firm in this shut-up patrol. “Lula has the right to decide”, “the people legitimized him to make his choices”.

The servile and clubistic argument confuses “having legal power” with “exercising that power without republican justification”. He looks like the lazy comedian who, in the face of criticism for the joke that makes those whom Brazilian society is already responsible for oppressing suffer, claims to have freedom of expression. Brazilian law may even allow freedom for bad taste jokes, but the comedian was never free from questioning.

A democratic presidency has a responsibility to respond to public scrutiny through argument and decision. Each position has its burdens. Lula has the right to make mistakes, but not immunity from criticism for gross errors. After all, electoral legitimacy never meant a blank check. A vote is neither unconditional delegation nor acclamation.

For those who claim that Lula cannot take risks, a warning: no democrat in the universal history of democracy could predict what judge appointed to the court would decide in the future. Chávez, Putin, Orbán, Erdogan, Trump and Menem, yes, they did it. They did not have judges, but agents. Lula couldn’t do it before, she won’t do it now. It can minimize risks, but the path is not one of partisan common sense in favor of a partner.

Hasty view. Haste is a friend of naivety.

Lula has named a partner in the past. It came from him, ironically, the worst betrayal. The betrayal that matters was not his person, but constitutional right. Dias Toffoli never accounted for judicial virtues such as coherence and decorum. Nor to intellectual virtues, such as analytical attention and argumentative refinement. From where nothing could be expected, what came came.

Like so many ministers, he frequents law and magistrate circles in Lago Sul. He is always present at festivals of promiscuity. Euphemistic, he calls the military coup a “movement” and deference to Bolsonarist violence a “dialogue”. He employed a general in his office to “dialogue” with the military. He surfed the Lava Jato wave, then the opposite wave. He surfs any wave that does not force him to break the pact of cordial pusillanimity. He accumulates cups from the JusPorn Awards.

The STF does not need a new hostess of private, business and central interests. From a minister who negotiates the Constitution for the best price. You can already learn that lobbyist advocacy with magistocracy does not make a democratic spring.

Choosing someone who combines legal intelligence, independence and dignity so as not to let himself be dazzled by professional corporations and the friendly lobby is the best Lula can do, the best insurance he can take out. A diverse and representative court is better equipped to resist the temptations of patrimonialism and messianism. And to build good constitutional jurisprudence.

Lula campaigned based on a commitment to equality, defense of the Constitution and protection of democracy. The power to appoint a STF minister has everything to do with equality, defending the Constitution and protecting democracy.

Confirmed the journalistic prognosis of appointment of a right operator whose great public credential was to be remunerated to defend Lula in criminal proceedings, his commitment will be with the blunder. Private gratitude does not match the public interest.

A jurist whose thinking is indistinguishable from the interests of his clients, including the president himself, will bring to court no more than distrust. He also defended Varig against its workers. He defends Americanas against its creditors. He will offer the best anti-Lulista argument to Congress and political extremism. It will help to raffle, once again, the capacity of the STF to be impartial and respectable.

The ghost of the lava-jatista fury is fought with more clairvoyance, not by repeating past mistakes. A minister’s reliability is measured by his integrity, consistency and trajectory, by the values ​​he professes and practices, not by services rendered to the president who appoints him.

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