Zanin’s nomination opens the race for Rosa Weber’s vacancy in the STF

With the appointment of Cristiano Zanin, friend and lawyer of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), to the seat left by Ricardo Lewandowski on the Federal Supreme Court (STF), a new race was opened for Minister Rosa Weber’s vacancy. The current President of the Court turns 75 in October, which allows for a new appointment by the President.

With that, names that were already working to fill the vacancy left by Lewandowski should expand their movements in order to guarantee Lula’s seal. Among the candidates, the president of the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU), Bruno Dantas, is already seen inside the Planalto Palace as one of the names that should emerge as one of the favorites for the chair.

As with Zanin’s nomination, Weber’s vacancy is seen as strategic by PT members, who indicate the possibility of the government having a name aligned with the guidelines adopted by the party. If Zanin’s nomination is approved by the Federal Senate, the STF plenary will once again have three ministers who were nominated by Lula. With the vacancy that will open with Weber’s retirement, that number will reach four.

Currently, the Court already has Justice Cármen Lúcia, nominated and sworn in 2006, in Lula’s first term, and Dias Toffoli, nominated and sworn in 2009, already in the PT’s second term. In addition, former president Dilma Rousseff nominated Rosa Weber, Luís Fux, Luís Roberto Barroso and Edson Fachin.

Performance against Bolsonaro gave projection to Bruno Dantas of TCU

In this strategy, Bruno Dantas is seen by PT members as a name that gained prominence mainly for his actions against the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL). At the end of last year, Dantas took advantage of the inauguration ceremony at TCU to indirectly criticize the management of the then president. Without quoting Bolsonaro, the jurist said that in recent years the country has experienced a “true civilizational setback”.

Dantas is also a critic of the Lava Jato operation. He recently said that the defunct task force had “exaggeratedly broadened” its scope, creating “widespread criminalization” against politicians. Last year, he voted to condemn federal deputy Deltan Dallagnol (Podemos-PR) to reimburse the public coffers by R$ 2.8 million for tickets and daily rates, allegedly irregular, paid to members of the task force who were not from Curitiba. , during the investigations of the operation. Subsequently, the TCU ruling was overturned by the Paraná court. Dallagnol was not responsible for releasing the payment of per diems and tickets and also did not receive the benefit.

Still according to PT leaders, the president of TCU has a guarantor profile, one of the characteristics that please the Planalto. Like Zanin, Dantas meets the age criterion, as he is 45 years old and could stay up to 30 years in the STF.

In addition to the sympathy of some PT wings, Dantas has the enthusiasm of several senators, including Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL). Bruno Dantas served as general consultant to the Senate between 2007 and 2011, a period in which he created proximity with Calheiros and other MDB chiefs. The relationship guaranteed him a nomination for the TCU in the vacancy destined for the Senate, in 2014. His name was approved in plenary by 47 votes among the 60 senators who were present at the session.

In April, during the launch of the Social Participation Council elaboration process in Brasilia, Lula made a point of mentioning Dantas’ presence and praising the “exceptional work” of the Court commanded by him. “We have here at our table a special companion, who is Bruno Dantas, president of the Federal Court of Auditors. The court has done an exceptional job”, said the petista.

Even appointed as one of those quoted for a vacancy in the STF, Dantas, when asked if he worked for the nomination, quoted a sentence from the former president of the Court, Nelson Jobim. “A position of minister of the Supreme cannot be applied for, nor is it refused,” he said in an interview with Roda Viva, on TV Cultura.

Women run outside for nomination for Rosa Weber’s vacancy in the STF

At the same time, members of the PT and the government defend that Lula maintains the number of women in the Court through the vacancy of Rosa Weber. The assessment is that the nomination of a woman would be an important signal for the platform that helped Lula to be elected.

Within the government, for example, ministers Silvio Almeida (Human Rights) and Anielle Franco (Racial Equality) defend the choice of a black woman for the Court. To date, the STF has had only three black ministers: Pedro Augusto Carneiro Lessa, Hermenegildo Rodrigues de Barros and Joaquim Barbosa, whose appointment to the STF occurred twenty years ago. The Court also only had three women in its composition: Ellen Gracie and the current ministers Cármen Lúcia and Rosa Weber.

“It is fundamental that there be a black woman in the STF, a black person, so that we can discuss democratization in the spaces of power”, said Silvio Almeida recently.

Among the names aired by the government is Vera Lúcia Araújo, who was already on a triple list for a vacancy at the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) in April 2022. At the time, however, she ended up being passed over by then-president Bolsonaro, who opted for nominating André Ramos Tavares on that occasion.

In an interview with Correio Braziliense, in March, Vera Lúcia said that she has always been active in the black and feminist movements and said that Brazil has experienced a “democratic crisis” since the impeachment of former president Dilma Rousseff (PT), which she considers a “coup “.

Another name pointed out by members of the PT is that of prosecutor Manuelita Hermes Rosa Oliveira Filha. A member of the Advocacy-General of the Union (AGU), Manuelita recently assumed the position of general coordinator of Judicial and Administrative Affairs of the Legal Consultancy of Silvio Almeida’s portfolio.

Last Thursday (1st) Rosa Weber took the opportunity to criticize the “small” number of women on the Court. According to the president of the STF, although there was a lot of female presence at the base of the judiciary, there was little gender equality in the superior courts.

“Here in Brazil we have many women at the base of the judiciary, in Justice in the first degree, but the number decreases in the intermediary. At the top, in the superior courts, the number is tiny”, commented Weber during a meeting with the president of Finland, Sauli Niinistö, who was on an official visit to Brazil.