Zanin votes thwart attempts to impose ideological labels on him

Cristiano Zanin’s first steps on the Federal Supreme Court (STF) are hampering attempts to label the new minister ideologically. With his votes and decisions, Zanin has already given reasons to disappoint and encourage left and right, and has become the most unpredictable minister of the Supreme Court.

Last week, one day after filing a lawsuit against former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) for failing to purchase vaccines – which angered part of the left –, Zanin voted against the time frame – which bothered the opposition, who wants to approve the framework in Congress.

After his vote in the judgment on the decriminalization of drugs, left-wing militants expressed their indignation against the minister on social networks. In the justification, Zanin contradicted a leftist dogma: that decriminalization would help combat the problems associated with drug use.

“The mere decriminalization of possession of drugs for consumption, in my view, presents legal problems and can even aggravate the situation we face in this problem of the fight against drugs. health problem,” he said.

In the judgment of the STF which, by 9 votes to 1, equated homophobia and transphobia with racial insult, Zanin was the only one to vote against the decision, giving a technical reason for his position. “The merits of the judgment could not be altered by motions for clarification, which only serve to clarify omission, obscurity, contradiction or material error in the judgment. And, in the view of Minister Zanin, there would not be the obscurity pointed out by Minister Fachin, rapporteur of the appeal “, justified his advice after the strong reaction of leftists to the vote.

The new minister was also against the application of the principle of insignificance for a theft worth R$100 reais, in judgment of the First Panel of the STF in which Zanin was in agreement with the majority of the collegiate.

The minister appointed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) was also responsible for breaking the tie in the STF judgment that defined that members of municipal guards are part of the public security system – and can, therefore, police roads and execute flagrant arrests. The decision was also criticized by leftist militants.

In addition, in the judgment in which the STF accepted, by 7 votes to 4, a series of requests from the Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil (Apib) for state actions to combat police violence against indigenous communities in Mato Grosso do Sul, Zanin was one of four ministers who voted against the requests.

Leftists reacted to this vote by accusing the magistrate of being against indigenist causes, and they feared that, in the time frame judgment, Zanin would be in the same direction. The minister, however, was against the framework.

The pressure on Zanin is, in part, a left-wing strategy to make it possible to nominate an ideologically more radical minister in Lula’s second choice of STF member this year. “More than ever: we need a black and progressive minister in the STF!”, recently said federal deputy Erika Hilton (PSOL-SP).

Zanin is conservative in the legal sense, but not in customs, note jurists

For jurist Adriano Soares da Costa, former law judge and author of the book “Instituições de Direito Eleitoral”, Zanin “has taken a technical stance, even more conservative, without creative interpretations”. “Conservative in the legal sense, respecting positive law,” he explains.

He discards, however, the thesis that Zanin is a conservative in the field of customs.

Regarding the vote in the timeframe, Soares da Costa considers that Zanin made a mistake. “It is an issue that should be in charge of the National Congress. The STF is creating an ironclad clause that aims to previously state that even a constitutional amendment would be prevented from dealing with the matter”, he observes.

Alessandro Chiarottino, PhD in Constitutional Law from USP, agrees that the vote on the time frame did not have the same technical rigor as other manifestations of the new minister.

“I even believe that Zanin will be more ‘technical’, however, the vote on the temporal milestone lights a yellow signal, since there was pressure, from inside and outside the PT, on Zanin”, he comments. “His arguments used in the time frame action were a parade of ideological concepts. Therefore, I think we can only see the glass as half full”, he adds.

The jurist considers, on the other hand, that Zanin’s position in the judgment on the decriminalization of marijuana was technically well founded, which makes predictable the pressure he has suffered from sectors of the left.

On social networks, the new minister has already been located at quite different points of the ideological spectrum, which highlights the difficulty of imposing labels on his actions so far.

“Zanin filed a lawsuit against Bolsonaro for failing to buy vaccines. To the PT’s despair, the minister seems to be more legalistic than militant. Biggest Trojan horse ever seen!”, recently celebrated the right-wing Rubinho Nunes (União), councilor of São Paul.

“You have to be very naive to believe that Zanin, the former lawyer of a convicted thief, is conservative. He will vote ‘right’ for a long time to show that he doesn’t have his tail tied up with Lula and that the STF has opposition. start “putting the iron” without pity on the right”, said a user in a post with thousands of likes.

“Zanin, the square: the youngest was more conservative with marijuana than ‘grandpa’ Gilmar. The STF built a consensus to mitigate the hyper-incarceration of black youths, a topic dear to the left for which Lula’s nominee showed he didn’t care” , posted a left-wing activist about the marijuana decriminalization trial.

“It’s a petista calling Zanin a Nazi. It’s a Bolsonarist rejoicing saying that Zanin is conservative. Only a psychiatric ward can solve this,” said another user in a post with more than a thousand likes.