PGR asks the Supreme Court for the unconstitutionality of the law that created “Patriot’s Day”

The Attorney General’s Office (PGR) wants the Federal Supreme Court (STF) to declare unconstitutional the law passed by the Porto Alegre City Council that made January 8 “Municipal Patriot Day”. The date is the same as the demonstrations against Congress, the Planalto Palace and the Federal Supreme Court (STF), in Brasília.

In the request, in addition to the immediate suspension of the law, the PGR requests the distribution of the action to Minister Alexandre de Moraes, responsible for Inquiry 4,879 on anti-democratic acts in Brasília.

The law was proposed in March by councilor Alexandre Bobadra (PL). Five months later, Bobadra would be impeached by the Regional Electoral Court of Rio Grande do Sul for economic abuse and misuse of the media.

After its proposal, the law passed, in the first semester, by the three permanent committees of the Chamber and was not analyzed by the plenary. Then, in June, it went to Mayor Sebastião Melo (MDB). The mayor neither sanctioned nor vetoed it and the project returned to the legislature.

The enactment of law 13.530/2023 was signed by the mayor, Hamilton Sossmeier (PTB) on July 10. A month earlier, the same Chamber had enacted a law decree authored by councilor Aldacir Oliboni (PT) which also instituted the Day in Defense of Democracy on January 8.

PGR calls for demonstrations by local authorities

The PGR’s request was presented by the coordinator of the Strategic Group to Combat Anti-Democratic Acts (GCAA), chief prosecutor Carlos Frederico Santos. He also requested manifestations from the mayor of the Capital, Sebastião Melo (MDB), from the president of the Chamber of Councillors, Hamilton Sossmeier (PTB) and from the Attorney General’s Office.

The mayor informed that the law was proposed, approved and enacted by the Chamber and would have nothing to add. On Friday (25), in a note, the executive clarified that “Mayor Sebastião Melo was silent respecting the decision of the City Council”.

The same argument was given by the President of the Chamber. In a note, Sossmeier claimed that “it is not up to the president to make a value judgment on this or that agenda or project”. He also added that when there is “silence by the mayor, it is only up to the head of the Legislature to promulgate it”.

The AGU said it will make a statement as soon as they are formally notified by the STF. In a note, he also informed that he is preparing “a new action to be filed next week in the Supreme Court, through which he will also question flagrantly unconstitutional aspects of the law approved by the legislature of Rio Grande do Sul”.

The City Council said it has also not been notified yet. “If there are injunctions or any other legal instruments, the Chamber will act to comply with them and to collaborate in the construction of collective, democratic and legal solutions for the issue”.

Prosecutor says the law hurts the democratic state

In the petition, the PGR argues that the municipal law would violate the democratic rule of law expressed in the Federal Constitution, in addition to violating republican principles and morality.

“It is inadmissible to draft immoral and anti-republican laws, whose purpose is to exalt and commemorate the practice of acts contrary to the democratic rule of law. Such acts, instead of being stimulated, exalted and promoted, need to be duly sanctioned and punished with the rigors of the law by the competent authorities”, quotes Carlos Frederico in one of the excerpts of the action.