Proposal to limit parties with access to the STF gains momentum in the Chamber

The idea of ​​limiting the power to call the Federal Supreme Court (STF) to overturn laws to a few parties began to be officially processed in the Chamber of Deputies. Defended behind the scenes by the President of the House, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), the proposal also has the veiled support of some Court ministers. If approved, it would leave only 11 parties, with the greatest weight in Congress, able to file “concentrated constitutionality control actions”, which seek to invalidate, confirm or interpret laws in accordance with the Constitution. Currently, any party with representation in Congress can present these actions.

According to the proposal being processed in the Chamber, 12 smaller parties would be prevented from activating the STF, including some that have become notable in recent years for this type of initiative, such as Rede, PSOL, PCdoB, PV, Solidariedade e Cidadania, on the left. Avante, Patriota, PROS, PSC, PTB and Novo, from the center and right, would still be barred. None of these meet the so-called “barrier clause” (or “performance”), a mechanism established in 2017 with the purpose of reducing the number of parties in Congress, by cutting public funding via party funds.

According to the project underway in Congress, only parties that met this cutoff line – with the election of at least 15 federal deputies, distributed in at least 9 states – would have the right to file direct unconstitutionality actions (ADIs) and arguments with the STF. of non-compliance with fundamental precepts (ADPFs), the types most used to overturn laws, decrees and normative acts issued by the Legislative or Executive Branch.

The limitation was proposed by deputy Alex Manente (Cidadania-SP) within a bill composed of a group of jurists led by minister Gilmar Mendes, of the STF, and which regulates the presentation of actions of this type in the Court. As shown by People’s Gazettethis same bill (PL 3640/2023) provides for the maintenance of the current power of ministers to suspend laws individually, in monocratic decisions – contrary to the PEC approved in the Senate that puts an end to this type of expedient, which would become made only by the plenary of the Court.

“The Substitute [texto alternativo proposto por Manente] proposes the inclusion of a § 2 in art. 9th, relating to the list of legitimized parties, in order to ensure that only associations that reach the barrier clause can trigger the abstract and concentrated jurisdiction of constitutionality before the Supreme Court, in line with its decisions on the concept of ‘national character’ present in art. 17 of the constitutional text”, wrote the deputy in his opinion.

In recent weeks, similar proposals, but with different criteria, have been floated in the Legislature. Arthur Lira even proposed that only parties that, individually or together, brought together at least 20% of parliamentarians in Congress – 103 deputies and 17 senators – could file an unconstitutionality action with the STF. “We have to raise the bar on ADI propositions,” said Lira in November, at a BTG bank event.

In October, Valdemar Costa Neto, national president of PL, the largest party in the Chamber, defended that only parties with more than 20 federal deputies could present ADIs.

“The comrade has 3 deputies in the Chamber, the PSOL [por exemplo]. You vote on a law in the Chamber, they go to the Supreme Court. So you limit. Limit how? Let’s make a law that you need to have at least 20 deputies for you to enter the Supreme Court. Because every law we pass, they [partidos pequenos] enter the Supreme Court. You can’t let these people have fun with this. It creates a problem with the Supreme Court, which has to evaluate it, and it creates a problem for all of us. These are constitutional matters, they invent them and get in there to promote themselves, this has to stop”, said Costa Neto, in an interview with Power360. “This is even Minister Gilmar Mendes’ idea”, he further stated.

Deputy from Novo says the proposal aims to “shut the mouth” of those who bother

In the current scenario, one of the parties most affected by the proposal would be Novo, which has been working with the STF to overturn some of the Lula government’s policies that it considers harmful.

The party has already presented actions, for example, to overturn in the STF the decree that intended to stop the privatization foreseen in the sanitation framework. He also questioned in Court the increase in the electoral fund and the “PEC Kamikaze”, which boosted social benefits in 2022, the election year, outside the spending ceiling.

Last month, the party filed an action to suspend payment of parliamentary amendments linked to the Senate’s Tourism and Regional Development Committee. For Novo, it is a new version of the “secret budget”, with federal funds worth R$6.48 billion, currently controlled by senator Marcelo Castro (MDB-PI), who was rapporteur of the 2023 budget law The party says that deputies and senators have obtained a large part of this amount without transparency and clear criteria in the allocation of resources.

For the leader of the Novo bench in the Chamber, Adriana Ventura (SP), the plan to now limit smaller parties is an attempt to “shut up” those who bother them.

“This proposal, firstly, is a counterpoint to the PEC that was approved in the Senate. I understand that some smaller parties have used this exaggeratedly in the past and I have no doubt that the procedure in the Supreme Court can be improved to restrict monocratic decisions. But this obstacle for parties to activate the STF represents yet another attack on democracy. They are trying to restrict a fundamental right, which is access to justice, which should be done through a PEC, not a bill. The objective is to “shut up” anyone who dares to challenge the system”, says the deputy.

Left-wing parties managed to overturn Bolsonaro’s policies

In recent years, other small, left-wing parties have been prolific in presenting actions to the STF that overturned policies or confronted flags dear to former president Jair Bolsonaro.

The Sustainability Network, for example, which currently has only one deputy in office, filed a lawsuit that allowed states and municipalities to restrict the movement of people during the pandemic. The party also called on the STF to ask Guardianship Councils to supervise parents who refused to vaccinate their children against Covid. Furthermore, he asked the Court to suspend Bolsonaro’s decrees that facilitated access to weapons and endorsed the action in which the Supreme Court annulled the former president’s pardon for former deputy Daniel Silveira.

PSOL, which currently has only 13 active deputies, is the author of the action that could decriminalize abortion in Brazil. There is also a case in the STF to expropriate land where the alleged occurrence of “work similar to slavery” is reported. Furthermore, it filed actions to prohibit “early treatment” against Covid and to try to overturn the sanitation framework, which allowed the private sector to enter the service.

The PCdoB – another left-wing runt, with only seven deputies in office – is the author of the action that could overturn a rule in the State Law that vetoes politicians in charge of public companies. At the beginning of the year, retired minister Ricardo Lewandowski monocratically suspended this prohibition, something that tends to be confirmed by the other members of the Court this week – the measure benefited Lula, who returned to allocating state-owned companies with political allies and party companions upon assuming his third term.