see history of political phrases from Barroso

In the tone of a political act, with a raised voice and catchphrases, Minister Luis Roberto Barroso, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), launched a series of controversial statements during a speech at the opening of the 59th Congress of the National Union of Students (UNE), in Brasilia, on the night of this Wednesday (12).

The minister said that he faced and defeated “Bolsonarism”. “I have already faced the dictatorship and I have already faced Bolsonarism. We defeated Bolsonarism to allow democracy and free demonstration by all people,” he declared. After the negative repercussion of the speech, the STF released a note stating that the minister’s statement did not refer to “the performance of any institution”, but to the “popular vote”.

UNE is, historically, a solid support platform for the Workers’ Party (PT) governments. During the event that Barroso attended, which started this Monday and runs until July 16, President Lula (PT), several representatives of the PT and ministers of the current government will be present.

“Being here is rediscovering my own past of facing authoritarianism, intolerance and people who scream instead of listening, people who curse instead of putting arguments on the table. This is Bolsonarism! (…) This is the recent past that we are trying to get rid of”, said the Minister of the Court, responsible for the judgment of several cases involving Bolsonaro and his allies.

In Congress, opposition parliamentarians to the Lula government announced that they will present an impeachment request against the minister. The foundation would be the law 1.079/50 defines as a crime of responsibility of ministers of the Supreme the exercise of political party activity and the procedure in a way incompatible with the honor, dignity and decorum of their functions. The tone for them would be even more inappropriate due to the fact that the minister will be holding the presidency of the STF until the 16th of July.

This is not the only statement in which the magistrate expresses his political opinions. See below for other occasions:

“We are very powerful. We are the powers of good”, he said, when responding to Bolsonaro’s possible re-election

At the Brazil Conference, an event held at Harvard University in April last year, when asked by federal deputy Tabata Amaral (PSB-SP) about his fears that Bolsonaro would win the elections, Barroso said: “You must not overestimate your enemies. We are very powerful. We are democracy. We are the powers for good and help push history in the right direction. Evil exists, we must face it. But evil cannot prevail over good”, said the minister.

After the negative repercussion of the statement, which took place in an election year, the official website of the STF released a note informing that the minister’s speech “was taken out of context in some publications or mentions”.

“Lost, man. It doesn’t bother you”, replied a Bolsonaro voter after the elections

Still in a post-electoral climate, two weeks after the second round of the 2022 presidential elections, which gave victory to Lula, the magistrate was approached by a Brazilian in New York (USA), where he was participating in a conference. The man, who was a supporter of Jair Bolsonaro and protested against the election results, questioned the minister about the Brazilian electronic voting machines. Irritated, the minister summed up by replying: “You lost, asshole. Don’t tease”.

“The judiciary went through a process of ascension and became a political power”

On June 5, during the opening of the 7th Meeting of the Council of Presidents of the Courts of Justice of Brazil, held in Porto Alegre, Barroso – who usually denies that there is judicial activism in the Supreme Court – said that the Judiciary has become a political power.

“The Judiciary in Brazil, after the Federal Constitution of 1988, lived and still lives a vertiginous process of institutional rise. It ceased to be a specialized technical department some time ago. It became a political power in Brazilian life. There has been a change in the nature, in the role, in the visibility, in the expectations that exist in relation to the Judiciary”, said the minister.

“Venezuela is ‘right-wing tyranny’”

In February 2021, when granting an interview to Professor Marco Antonio Villa, the minister stated that the Venezuelan Bolivarian regime, denounced by the UN for numerous violations of human rights, would be a “right-wing dictatorship”.

“Do you think Venezuela is conservative? I certainly think so, since Chávez’s time. For me, that was always a right-wing tyranny with a disguised speech”, said Barroso.

Venezuela is ruled by dictator Nicolás Maduro, who succeeded fellow dictator Hugo Chávez after his death in 2013. Chávez was a far-left populist leader who eroded the country’s democratic structure and fiercely persecuted his opponents. Leader of Bolivarianism, which he considered “the socialism of the 21st century”, he appointed Maduro, a longtime ally of Lula, to follow up on his anti-democratic ideals.

Barroso alongside UNE activists and Minister Flávio Dino. This week, the magistrate rejected a complaint against Dino presented by opposition parliamentarians (Photo: MJSP)| Marcus Iahn

“It’s going to be late”, in an indirect message on Twitter before the 2nd round of the presidential elections

During the 2022 elections, Barroso used Twitter to send political indirections against right-wing figures. Every Friday, the minister recommends a book, a thought and a song on his social network. On the Friday before the second round of the presidential election, he recommended the song “Já vai tarde”, by the group Mania de Ser, in an obvious reference to the then candidate for re-election, Jair Bolsonaro.

Jurist sees little chance of success in impeachment request

The repercussion of the minister’s recent statement, about having “defeated Bolsonarism”, was wide in Brasilia, with parliamentarians emphatically criticizing Barroso’s posture. The practical response of opposition deputies was the articulation of an impeachment request against the minister, but the request has little chance of advancing.

This is the analysis of Antônio Pedro Machado, Master in Constitutional Law. For him, the minister’s statement has a negative impact and tends to further intensify society’s perspective in relation to the Supreme Court. However, a decision on the minister’s alleged crime would not only rely on the “cold letter” of Law 1079/50, but on the history of the ministers’ institutional conduct.

“What we see historically, at least since 1988 and especially in recent years, is a certain naturalness in the participation of judges in events of this nature. This has been increasingly recurrent and needs to be evaluated. It is something that attracts criticism, but legality depends not only on a cold analysis of what the law says, but also on the practice of what is observed and what is taken for granted”, he explains.

For the jurist, there is legal viability in the request of the parliamentarians, but its advancement is unlikely. “Although it is shocking, and the country’s critical moment makes all this more burning, institutionally we have never had the loss of a Supreme Minister’s mandate for this reason and it is not the first time that this has happened”, he declares.