PT wing defends that Lula reappoint Aras for a new term in the PGR

A wing of the PT has been moving behind the scenes with the intention of defending that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) reappoint Augusto Aras for another term at the head of the Attorney General’s Office (PGR). The current term of Aras ends in September and the expectation within the Planalto Palace is that Lula makes the new nomination by the end of August.

For Lula’s allies, the performance of Augusto Aras against Lava Jato is the main point that must be taken into account by the president when choosing. In the evaluation of these PT members, the prosecutor proved to be “coherent” during his tenure at the Federal Public Ministry (MPF).

The deputy electoral attorney general, Paulo Gonet, has Lula’s sympathy for having defended the ineligibility of former president Jair Bolsonaro during a trial at the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), at the end of June.

But the behind-the-scenes movements for choosing the attorney general happen in spite of the triple list released by the National Association of Attorneys of the Republic (ANPR), which does not contain either name. In 2019, when Bolsonaro disregarded the ANPR’s triple list, the Workers’ Party classified the attitude as “the biggest setback in 20 years”.

On Monday (10), the leader of the government in the Senate, Senator Jaques Wagner (PT-BA), argued that the current attorney general, Augusto Aras, reduced previous “excesses”, in an indirect quote to the task force of Curitiba and other investigations.

“I am obliged to say here that I recognize the work that the current Attorney General of the Republic has done for the sake of a return to normality after a very complicated and hard period of using judicial activism to hunt people and reputations. In my opinion, the contribution he made is undeniable”, said the PT senator in an interview with Globo News.

Despite the signaling of the government leader, Aras has already been the target of criticism from the PT because of gestures that were interpreted as support for former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL). The current attorney general was appointed by Bolsonaro in 2019 and reappointed for a second term in 2021.

During the Bolsonaro government, Aras filed more than 100 investigation requests against the then president and did not file a complaint with the Federal Supreme Court (STF). Just last year, in an interview with UOLhe went so far as to say that he would not change his style of work if the PT candidate were elected.

For Lula’s assistants, however, Aras’ connection with the former president is precisely the point that makes it difficult to nominate him for a third term. According to the Constitution, the nominee for the position must be at least 35 years old and be a member of the Public Ministry. In addition, the nomination must be approved by the Federal Senate.

Aras defends action to “disrupt the foundations” of Lava Jato

Trying to pave the way for his reappointment with the support of PT parliamentarians, Augusto Aras defended his actions to ”disrupt the foundations of lavajatismo” when commenting on his work at the head of the Attorney General’s Office.

“It remains to be seen whether all of them will have the disposition that the attorney general has shown in these 4 years, to face and disrupt the bases of lavajatismo while receiving the reverse a rain of tracer projectiles illuminated by a journalism fed by atrocious and uncritical denunciation” he published in the Twitter.

The publication of Aras was seen backstage at Planalto as yet another nod by the current Attorney General in an attempt to win another term through the nomination that will be made by Lula. During his tenure, the PGR ended the task forces in Curitiba, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, replacing them with a new model, with a smaller support structure.

Before that, Aras had already made a signal to the PT government when he changed his understanding in the judgment of a declaratory action of unconstitutionality on the State-owned Law by the STF. On the occasion, the prosecutor aligned himself with the understanding of the Advocacy General of the Union (AGU) that the sections of the law questioned in the Supreme Court are an “obstacle to the participation of citizens in party-political life” and, therefore, must be declared unconstitutional , allowing party members to assume management positions in public enterprises.

Deputy electoral attorney counts on Lula’s sympathy to take over the PGR

Despite Aras’s efforts, the deputy electoral attorney general, Paulo Gonet, is pointed out by members of the Executive as a name that has sympathy for Lula. Gonet was responsible, for example, for defending the ineligibility of former President Bolsonaro during the TSE trial.

In his demonstration, Gonet considered that there was abuse of political power in the process in which the former president was accused of attacking the smoothness of electronic voting machines in a meeting with ambassadors in July 2022. According to him, there was a deviation from purpose in the episode, in which Bolsonaro purposely disseminated false information, and used his public function in an electoral and improper manner.

In addition to Lula’s sympathy, the deputy electoral attorney general also has the endorsement of STF ministers Alexandre de Moraes and Gilmar Mendes. In addition, the Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino, and the Prerogativas group, which brings together lawyers critical of Lava Jato, have also reinforced the name of Gonet.

Lula has already indicated that he will not accept a triple list to indicate a new PGR

The movement of Aras and Gonet occurs in parallel with the traditional triple list drawn up by the National Association of Public Prosecutors. Despite this, Lula has already indicated that she does not intend to make the choice based on the list presented by the representative entity of the Public Ministry.

In the eight years in which he was in power, Lula chose as attorney general the name with the most votes among those presented in the triple list. Dilma Rousseff did the same in the six years she occupied the Planalto Palace.

Afterwards, Michel Temer (MDB) changed the tradition by choosing Raquel Dodge, who had been in second place in the voting made by ANPR. Bolsonaro, on the other hand, chose not to indicate a name presented by the entity.

According to Lula, Lava Jato damaged the MPF’s image and therefore intends to make a personal choice and not through the triple list for the PGR. “And the MPF has to know that I will not choose because of the irresponsibility of the Paraná task force, which was a brat, which damaged the image of the MPF. In fact, they almost destroyed the image of the seriousness of the Public Ministry. A bunch of irresponsible brats. They threw away something that only I had done,” Lula said in an interview.

In April of this year, Senator Sergio Moro (União Brasil-PR) submitted a request to unarchive the Proposal for Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) 25/2020, which obliges the president to comply with the Public Prosecutor’s Office’s triple list for choosing the Public Prosecutor. -General of the Republic. The request also covers a PEC and five bills related to the fight against corruption. The proposal, however, remains without forecast to be analyzed by the House.