Right-wing parliamentarians reject Lula’s speech on secret ballot in the STF

President Lula’s (PT) declaration that the votes of the ministers of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) should be confidential, without society knowing how the magistrates vote, did not reverberate well in the National Congress. Right-wing and center-right parliamentarians criticized the president’s position of restricting transparency in the country’s highest judicial court, at a time when Lula needs to get closer to congressmen in order to build a support base.

Even though the measure was unconstitutional, left-wing parliamentarians decided to ignore Lula’s speech, which was replicated by Minister Flávio Dino, of Justice.

Senator Alessandro Vieira (MDB), co-religionist of Minister Simone Tebet (Planning), said that the PT’s speech “already deserves prominence in the contest for the craziest sentence of the year”. “Dear Lula, democracy demands exactly the opposite, that is, maximum publicity. The historical lesson that ‘sunshine is the best disinfectant’ is worth it,” he added.

Federal deputy Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG) classified the declaration as “relative democracy” in reference to another controversial speech by the president, in mid-June. On the occasion, when commenting on the political situation in Venezuela, Lula defended the dictator Nicolás Maduro, an ally of the PT, who is accused of several crimes against humanity.

The PT’s statement was also criticized by federal deputy Gustavo Gayer (PL-GO), who stated that the president “wants to end the transparency of the votes of STF ministers, one of the pillars of a democracy is to know how our authorities vote” .

For deputy Kim Kataguiri (União-SP), “Lula is an authoritarian who doesn’t even disguise that he hates democracy and transparency anymore”.

When commenting on the president’s sentence, Deputy Coronel Meira (PL-PE) recalled that “there is no parallel, in the democratic world, where a Supreme Court has the prerogative of secret ballot”.

Repercussion outside Brasilia

Former Lava Jato prosecutor and former deputy, Deltan Dallagnol, said he was “outraged” by Lula’s speech. “He thinks that the Federal Supreme Court is Mensalão, it is Petrolão to do the wrong things in secret. If the Supreme Court legalizes drugs, if the Supreme Court releases monthly allowance, destroys Lava Jato, society has the right to know”, said Dallagnol.

The lawyer and former congresswoman, Janaina Paschoal, highlighted the strategy used by Lula to propose secrecy of ministers’ votes.

“The President’s statement is very worrying, in the sense that the votes of the STF ministers are confidential. I repeat, Lula is very intelligent. He knows that the Mensalão judgment would not have the outcome it did, were it not for the popular scrutiny. We cannot allow setbacks in terms of transparency. For some time now, the left has been trying to close the STF judgments, under the several arguments. Lula, strategically, embraces a justification that is difficult to contest, but it is necessary,” said Paschoal.