Zanin asks for votes in the Senate for a vacancy in the STF – 06/13/2023 – Power

A few days before being questioned by the CCJ (Constitution and Justice Commission), lawyer Cristiano Zanin spent this Tuesday (13) in the Senate in search of votes for the vacancy of Minister of the STF (Federal Supreme Court).

Zanin spoke throughout the day with more than 20 senators, including the female caucus and the PSD. One of the offices visited was that of Senator Hiran Gonçalves (PP-RR), who is close to the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL).

In recent days, Zanin has asked different names of the opposition to vote, such as the leader of the Republicans, Senator Mecias de Jesus (RR). The two met by chance at the headquarters of the Attorney General’s Office and agreed to talk again before the Sabbath.

Last week Zanin also sought the leader of the opposition in the Senate, Rogério Marinho (PL-RN), former minister of Jair Bolsonaro (PL). The report found that the lawyer scheduled to meet with opposition senator Esperidião Amin (PP-SC).

The lawyer was silent, however, when asked by the Sheet if you want to talk to Senator and former Lava Jato judge Sergio Moro (União Brasil-PR). Moro, however, asked if he had been contacted by Zanin, repeated the answer from the previous week and said that the question should be asked to the lawyer.

On opposite sides during Lava Jato, Zanin and Moro exchanged barbs during President Lula’s (PT) processes. PT’s lawyer, Zanin even praised a criticism that had been made by the then judge.

Contested by opposition figures, the proximity of the nominee to Lula has been remembered by base senators as attractive. Privately, one of them says that he told Zanin that he deserved a seat on the STF just because he was loyal to the president and continued to defend him during the Lava Jato era.

In this Tuesday’s meetings, Zanin got the support of the PSD, the party of the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (MG), and the majority of the women’s bench. On Wednesday (14), Zanin must meet with the MDB bench – a request made to the leader of the acronym, Eduardo Braga (AM).

“He has a very correct education, a law professor and he behaved very confidently, very serenely, very firmly in defending, perhaps, the biggest legal process ever seen in Brazil, which was the question of the minister in the defense of President Lula”, said PSD leader Senator Otto Alencar (BA).

Zanin also met this Tuesday with Senators from Toucan Alessandro Vieira (SE) and Plínio Valério (AM); with the leader of Podemos, Oriovisto Guimarães (PR); with the vice-president of the Senate, Veneziano Vital do Rêgo (MDB-PB); and with PT Rogério Carvalho (SE).

Nominated by President Lula for the vacancy of Minister Ricardo Lewandowski —who retired in April—, Zanin needs the vote of at least 41 of the 81 senators. Voting is secret.

Zanin will be questioned by the Senate CCJ next Wednesday (21). The name will be submitted to the plenary on the same day, according to Pacheco.

Senators from Lula’s allied base calculate that Zanin should have around 55 votes, 14 more than necessary. In the vote for President of the Senate, which has been used as a parameter on the size of the base, Pacheco received 49 votes.

Both the president of the Senate and the president of the CCJ, Davi Alcolumbre (União Brasil-AP), have told the Planalto Palace that Zanin should be approved easily. Bolsonaro’s PL, for example, should free senators to vote the way they want.