Zanin becomes a target of the left after 1 month in the STF – 09/03/2023 – Power

After weeks under attacks from politicians and left-wing movements, Cristiano Zanin comes to the end of his first month as minister of the STF (Federal Supreme Court) amid a government movement to defend him from criticism from supporters of President Lula (PT ).

Zanin, who advocated for the PT in the actions of Operation Lava Jato, was sworn in as minister on August 3 and drew attention for his conservative positions.

In 30 days as a member of the Judiciary dome, he diverged from the majority in matters dear to the progressive field and even gave a vote that contradicted entities that represent the LGBTQIA+ population in a trial that had a favorable position even by Minister Kassio Nunes Marques, appointed by the former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

In addition, it also displeased environmentalists and criminal lawyers, two other important support pillars of Lula.

However, after suffering pressure for votes and decisions that were not expected by the PT base, the minister began to be defended both in public and in private by people close to the president.

In private conversations, Supreme Court ministers also started a movement to criticize the attacks he suffered when voting, for example, against the decriminalization of drug possession for personal use.

The Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino (PSB), even went public to demonstrate in favor of Zanin, saying that there is a “political misunderstanding” in the analysis of the new member of the STF.

Dino said in an interview with GloboNews that the “government led by President Lula is not left-wing, it is a government that expresses a democratic majority.”

“Cristiano Zanin fits into this concept of democratic majority? Yes, of course. It means saying that in dozens of votes, who knows hundreds, there will not be a thinning in what he votes and the theses of the left”, said Dino, who is one of those quoted to occupy the next seat on the Supreme Court, which will open with Rosa Weber’s retirement this month.

He evaluated that it is too early to analyze Zanin’s performance – the same impression of other ministers and Lula’s assistants, who have defended the president’s former lawyer.

Zanin’s vote last Thursday (31), against the thesis of the temporal framework of indigenous lands, helped to secure this position.

This thesis, defended by ruralists, states that the demarcation of indigenous territories must respect the area occupied by the peoples until the enactment of the Federal Constitution, in October 1988.

Zanin helped break the tie against the timeframe, which has not yet ended.

Last Friday (1st), he overturned a decision by the Court of Justice of the Federal District that censored a report in Piauí magazine at the request of a couple and that dealt with the dehydration of Mais Médicos in the Bolsonaro government.

Despite the operation to defend the new minister’s image, the decisions of Lula’s former lawyer are still the subject of concern by sectors of society linked to the PT – who even claim that they will redouble their attention to the next nomination to the Supreme Court due to the Zanin’s positions in this first month at the STF.

The president of the National LGBTI+ Alliance, Toni Reis, saw with “concern” his vote against equating offenses against the LGBTQIA+ population with racial injury on the grounds that the procedural form handled by the Supreme Court was inadequate.

Reis claims that the movement supported Zanin’s nomination because he was a guarantor and because it was Lula’s choice, but admits that it did not “pay as much attention” to his positions in the field of customs. “We turned on the yellow light,” he says.

And he adds: “Now, we are talking to several senators and senators and in the next nomination we are much more attentive and we hope that Lula chooses someone who sees human rights for everyone”.

With regard to drugs, left-wing movements claim that the criminalization of this conduct is one of the main factors that led to the mass incarceration of blacks and the poor in the country and that a change of understanding is necessary for a fairer action by the Judiciary.

This position was repeated at court even by Minister Alexandre de Moraes, who has no history of links with the left.

In the case of environmentalists, the attacks began after voting against the processing of a lawsuit that investigates police violence in Mato Grosso against the Guarani and Kaiowá indigenous peoples.

Zanin also came under fire from lawyers for modifying his vote in the bail judge’s judgment to suit the court’s majority.

His position in the case reinforced the thesis that his nomination did not meet the historic demand of specialists in the field for a professional with a career focused on criminal law to be assigned to the Supreme Court.

This is because Zanin’s performance in relevant criminal actions was more restricted to Lula’s processes and his specialization, in fact, is in civil and procedural law.

Initially, the minister voted to validate the device that provided that the magistrate who practiced any act within the competence of the judge of guarantees would be prevented from acting in the process, only suggesting an interpretation to restrict the scope of the rule to cases in which the judge of the process had “delivered decision-making acts” in the investigative phase.

Afterwards, he abandoned the understanding to declare the unconstitutionality of that part of the law approved by Congress.

Also mentioned was the fact that Zanin did not oppose the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the rule that established that the second judge in the case would only act after receiving the complaint.

At 47, Zanin takes the place of Ricardo Lewandowski, who retired in April. He will be able to stay on the STF until November 2050, when he turns 75, age limit for court ministers.