What Lula and PT already said about nominations to the STF – 01/06/2023 – Politics

President Lula has been collecting gestures and statements that conflict with the electoral campaign and the PT’s actions throughout the government of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) regarding the appointment of members to the STF (Federal Supreme Court) and the use of the triple list to the appointment of the head of the PGR (Attorney General’s Office).

In 2022, for example, he stated: “I think the Supreme Court has to be chosen for competence, for curriculum, and not for friendship.” Already as president, Lula said that “everyone would understand” if he nominated Cristiano Zanin, his lawyer in Lava Jato cases, for a vacancy in the STF – which happened this Thursday (1st).

Lula also stated that he does not intend to repeat the nomination for the leadership of the PGR through the triple list, made in an internal election between prosecutors.

Bolsonaro ignored the list twice when choosing Augusto Aras for the PGR, and, on the occasion, the PT even released a note stating that the case showed the unpreparedness of the then president. The former president also said that his friendship would be an important criterion for appointing ministers to the STF, when dealing with the choice of Kassio Nunes Marques for the court.

“The issue of friendship is an important thing, right? The relationship between us. I’ll indicate next year, first prerequisite: you have to be evangelical, ‘terribly evangelical’. Second prerequisite: you have to take tubaína with me , wow,” said Bolsonaro.

See what Lula and the PT said before and now about nominating members to the STF and the PGR:

PGR (Unpreparedness and disrespect to the institution)

In 2019, PT even released a note after Bolsonaro chose Aras to command the PGR, a name that was not on the triple list sent by the category to the then president.

“The case is yet another example of Bolsonaro’s unpreparedness for the position he occupies, embarrassing a position that for 16 years he filled brilliantly. During their governments, Lula and Dilma [Rousseff] always respected the triple list of the ANPR and, most of the time, they chose the most voted by the prosecutors”, said the party’s note at the time.

In the text, the acronym also cited a demonstration by the National Association of Attorneys of the Republic at the time, which classified the disrespect for the internal elections of prosecutors as the “biggest democratic and institutional setback of the Federal Public Ministry in 20 years”.

PGR (‘I don’t want a friend’)

Already in the first round of the 2022 presidential elections, Lula took advantage of the sabbath held by Jornal Nacional to criticize his opponent’s appointments, saying that he could have appointed an attorney general of the Republic “sleeve” in his mandates.

“I don’t want a friend in any institution”, said the petista. “I want competent people, clean people, republican people and people who think about the Brazilian people.”

However, at the time, the then candidate did not want to publicly commit to nominating a name on the triple list made by the category.

STF (Neither prudent nor democratic)

In the debate held in the second round of 2022 by SheetUOL, Band and TV Cultura, Lula said he would not change the composition of the STF to make it easier for possible judicial questions about government measures, keeping the 11 ministers and choosing them based on the curriculum.

“It is not prudent, it is not democratic for a President of the Republic to want to have the ministers of the Supreme Court as friends”, said Lula. “I think the Supreme Court has to be chosen for competence, for curriculum, and not for friendship.”

The petista still said he was proud of the ministers he appointed because, according to him, the magistrates voted on important actions for society.

“It was the ministers I indicated who voted for stem cells, voted for Raposa Serra do Sol, voted for civil union, that is, they were people who had a posture of dignity.”

STF and PGR (‘They threw it away’)

This year, in a live interview for the Brasil 247 portal, the PT member stated that he will not follow the triple list to appoint the new Attorney General of the Republic. He blamed the Operation Car Wash task force for the decision.

“The only thing I’m sure of is that I’m not going to choose another triple list. And the Federal Public Ministry has to know that I’m not going to choose because of the irresponsibility of the Paraná task force, which was a kid, which damaged the image of the Federal Public Ministry, which it almost destroyed the image of the Public Ministry’s seriousness, an irresponsible kid’s bench. They threw out something that only I had done, choosing the triple list”, highlighted Lula.

The president also commented on what was still being treated as a possible indication to the STF of Cristiano Zanin, his lawyer in the processes he suffered during Lava Jato.

“Zanin was the great legal revelation in recent years. Zanin was heavily criticized [ao fazer a defesa de Lula na Lava Jato]because I wasn’t a criminalist, a lot of people asked me ‘you have to hire so-and-so’, a lot of people from my party really”, he said.