Toffoli and Aras exhibit an addiction to an accommodation policy – 09/26/2023 – Bruno Boghossian

When he smelled Jair Bolsonaro’s victory in 2018, Dias Toffoli winked at the captain’s group. In September, the then president of the STF appointed a general with privileged access to the Army leadership as advisor. On the eve of the first round, the minister called the coup that installed a dictatorship in the country the “1964 movement”.

Toffoli’s idea, according to assistants, was to position himself as a buffer. The minister considered that Bolsonaro and the military represented a risk of institutional shocks. In this scenario, it would be prudent to present the Supreme Court as a partner, not as an enemy.

Docility became a long-term option and evolved into the omission shown in the face of Bolsonaro’s attacks. It involved, apparently, an alliance of ministers with the body that was supposed to monitor and react to that danger.

Toffoli paid tribute to this policy of accommodation when saying goodbye to Augusto Aras as Attorney General of the Republic. “Not many people know, but we were very close to rupture,” he reported. According to the minister, if it weren’t for the silence of the head of the PGR, “maybe we wouldn’t be here”.

Summarizing Aras’ management to the “strength of his silence” carries both an elegant exactitude and an offensive mockery. The attorney general was notable for covering up the dilapidation led by Bolsonaro in managing the pandemic and for the free path he left for the proliferation of coup plots.

Aras’ current defense states that he avoided a tragic outcome by failing to denounce characters who left us “close to breaking”. If a threat makes the attorney general silent and guarantees protection to those who were plotting a coup, it is a sign that the threat achieved at least some objectives.

Aras offered self-congratulation and said he would not reveal details of that case: “These are things told later in the story.” Even out of office, the prosecutor indicated that he must maintain his shield.

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