The end of the STF ministers’ modesty of acting politically marked 2023

“We defeated Bolsonarism”, said, in July, minister Luís Roberto Barroso, current president of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), at an event of the National Union of Students (UNE). The speech, for which Barroso apologized a day later, is emblematic of a trend that was consolidated in the year 2023: the Supreme Court ministers left aside their modesty about the excessive exposure of their political preferences.

There were several occasions on which judges explained their political views at public events or in the STF plenary session, in some cases making it clear that the Court acted intentionally to prohibit the expression of certain types of opinions and annihilate certain political groups.

In addition to Barroso, minister Gilmar Mendes made it clear that the Court feels responsible for the non-reelection of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in 2022. “If today we have the election of President Lula, this was due to a decision by the Supreme Court. Federal Court,” he said at an event in Paris in October.

At a February Lide group event in Lisbon, Gilmar Mendes had already stated that Brazil “was being governed by people from the basement”. In May, on the program Roda Vivafrom the TV Cultura, he said that the actions of prosecutors and judges from Operation Lava Jato in Curitiba were responsible for Bolsonaro’s election to the Presidency of the Republic in 2018, and that the city “has the germ of fascism”.

Without giving names, but in an almost evident reference to Bolsonaro’s rise, Alexandre de Moraes stated at the beginning of December that the consequence of corruption in politics was the coming to power of the “extreme right” with “hatred” and “blood in their eyes”. during an event promoted by the Federal Public Ministry (MPF). “All preventive systems failed to combat corruption. This ended up creating a very large vacuum and generated polarization, hatred and the emergence, not only in Brazil, of an extreme right that is bloody in its eyes and undemocratic,” he said.

The members of the STF did not miss opportunities to publicly weigh in on various political issues. In early December, during the 2023 United Nations Conference on Climate Change, COP-28, in Dubai, Barroso defended the need for a transnational solution to problems related to climate change in the world.

Often, judges used cases of violence with great national repercussion to raise political flags. In September, Gilmar Mendes tweeted about the cases of the girl Heloísa dos Santos Silva and Genivaldo de Jesus Santos to say that the Federal Highway Police “deserves to have its existence rethought”. The minister stated ironically that the PRF, “in its spare time, is involved in attempted electoral coups”, in reference to the suspicion that the body’s actions have prevented people from voting in the Northeast region in October 2022.

In addition to statements, the participation of judges in events with an obvious political-ideological bias was also normalized. Barroso’s own presence at a UNE event is an example of this trend.

In February, then-minister Ricardo Lewandowski participated in an event by the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST), during which he wore a cap from the far-left organization.

Influence of STF ministers behind the scenes in politics intensifies

The Supreme Court also exerted political pressure on matters within the competence of Congress, threatening to decide before parliamentarians if they did not take action on certain topics, or bringing to trial matters that are already being processed in the Legislative Branch.

At the beginning of the year, the STF began an intense campaign for a change in the Civil Rights Framework for the Internet, promoting a public hearing on the subject with an obvious political bias.

On several occasions, ministers tried to link the acts of vandalism by 8/1 and even the attacks on schools to the lack of internet regulation, treating the two violent phenomena as a consequence of the rise of the political group that governed the country between 2019 and 2022. . In speeches and acts, ministers tried to signal that they have an ace up their sleeve if Congress does not approve a law against fake news: the judgment on article 19 of the Marco Civil.

The magistrates also acted behind the scenes to politically negotiate the appointments of new ministers, participated in lunches and dinners to seal agreements, gave anonymous statements to columns by famous journalists with the obvious intention of influencing the political game, and publicly criticized parliamentarians when they felt upset by the Congress.

To journalist Eliane Cantanhêde, a Supreme Court judge left an anonymous statement protesting against the vote of the government leader, Jaques Wagner, in favor of the PEC that limits monocratic decisions of the STF in November. The minister in question classified the fact as a “slow betrayal” and confessed that there had previously been a “honeymoon” with the government. The speech was released by Cantanhêde.

“The honeymoon with the government is over. Low betrayal. Union with the Bolsonarists against the STF? After everything that happened? Jaques Wagner needs to resign from the leadership, otherwise the conversation with the STF is over,” said a minister according to the journalist, who excluded the possibility that Gilmar Mendes was the member of the Supreme Court in question.

Publicly, Barroso and Mendes also spoke out to criticize the PEC. “This Supreme Court is prepared to face the disproportionate and unconstitutional attacks, now coming from the Legislative Branch. This court does not tolerate intimidation”, stated Gilmar Mendes. “This House is not made up of cowards, this house is not made up of fearful people,” he added.