From Rio de Janeiro
Making it clear for the umpteenth time that he does not know all limits, not even vestiges of limits, the far-right Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro advanced once more, first in Brasilia and then more furiously at a rally in São Paulo, against the Supreme Federal Court (STF).
Referring specifically to one of its members, Alexandre de MoraesBolsonaro emphatically assured that he will not comply with any of his determinations. In passing, he mentioned other “scoundrels” who make up the Supreme Court of Brazil, inciting protesters to follow suit.
In an unprecedented attack by a president on a member of the Supreme Court of Justice in Brazil, Bolsonaro had already asked in the morning, in a demonstration called by him in Brasilia, that Luiz Fux, president of the STF, “control” one of the its members, precisely Moraes.
Coup rhetoric
In a clear coup statement, he warned Fux that if he didn’t, “That Power (in reference to the Judiciary) can suffer what we do not want (a direct intervention).”
In recent weeks Bolsonaro has been insinuating that he does not want a “break” between the institutions (Executive, Legislative and Judicial), but that he feels that it is increasingly difficult to prevent that from happening, mainly as a result of measures carried out in the Court Supreme
In the afternoon, in São Paulo, he went further: said that it will not respect any of the decisions of Alexandre de Moraes issued from the STF.
The avalanche of attacks by Bolsonaro on the Supreme Court, as well as on another of its members, Luis Roberto Barroso, who at the same time presides over the Superior Electoral Court, has been growing steadily for some time. This Tuesday they reached their peak.
Bolsonaro defends that the current electoral system, with electronic voting, is not “auditable.” He said that in 2018 he won in the first round, and promised to present evidence. Thus began his attacks with Barroso.
He never presented anything. On the contrary: in a live broadcast on social networks, he brought widely and strongly denied complaints for at least two years.
Thanks to that, Alexandre de Moraes, with the full support of all his colleagues on the Supreme Court, opened an investigation against the president.
Many other measures by Moraes – all, it is worth reiterating – with the full support of his colleagues in the highest court, deeply irritated Bolsonaro, raising more and more tension.
Moraes determined the imprisonment of several “bolsonaristas” that, through social networks, incited not only acts of violence but also spread lies everywhere. One of them, former deputy Roberto Jefferson, is a clear example of how those followers of the far-right president act: with a fuzil in his hands, he warned that his target was former president Lula.
For Bolsonaro, attitudes like that and of many other fanatics of his followers, constitute full “freedom of expression” guaranteed by the Constitution. And by ordering their arrest, Alexandre de Moraes transformed them into “political prisoners.”
This Tuesday, once again and in especially harsh terms, the president demanded his “immediate release.”
As will be recalled, Bolsonaro went so far as to ask the Senate, which has jurisdiction to do so, to declare the impediment of Alexandre de Moraes and his consequent removal from the Supreme Court.
The president of the Senate (and Congress), Rodrigo Pacheco, did not even agree to analyze the request. With that, he became yet another enemy of the far-right president.
Also this Tuesday, Bolsonaro, on another battle front, reiterated that he will not accept the results of the presidential elections next year unless the “auditable” printed vote returns.
It is a clear and repeated attack on the president of the Superior Electoral Court, Luis Roberto Barroso, also a member of the Supreme Court, who assured that the current system is safe and is provided for in the legislation.
In Trump’s mirror
The measure taken up by Bolsonaro has already been defeated in the Chamber of Deputies, and the insistence of the president anticipates what he will be able to do when he is defeated, as all public opinion polls indicate, next year: imitate his idol and guide Donald Trump and order an invasion of Congress.
What is considered in the political media after the storm that arose from the clearly coup statements by Jair Bolsonaro, mainly those directed against the Supreme Court of Justice, but also the Congress, is that the climate has reached such a level that it will require urgent measures. Specifically, it is considered that with his attacks on the Judiciary and his affirmation that he will not respect decisions of the STF he announced a break.
Once again, Bolsonaro anticipated, shouting, that he will only leave the presidential palace “by the hands of God.” That is he will not accept any other electoral result than his victory.
At the beginning of the night the members of the Supreme Federal Court met to decide what attitude to adopt in the face of what happened.
While we await what will be decided by both the Supreme Court and the parties allied or close to the extreme right, and mainly what the president of the Chamber of Deputies will do, in whose drawer they lull at least 126 requests to open a trial to dismiss the extreme right – and Now clearly a coup-leader, there were strong cacerolazos throughout the country at night.
If to that is added the data that, despite being large, the demonstrations on Tuesday were much smaller than what Bolsonaro and his closest followers expected, the impression remains that the president left a particularly turbulent day less than That I enter.
It remains to be seen what will happen from today, after a day of tremendous turbulence.
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