The president of Brazil is once again in the eye of justice in his country. A Supreme Court judge ordered this Wednesday the opening of an investigation against Jair Bolsonaro for spreading false information, after his constant and unproven attacks on the electoral system.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes made this decision following a request from the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), which announced this Monday to open an investigation against the Head of State for “abuse of political and economic power (…) in his attacks against the electronic voting system and the legitimacy of the 2022 elections. ”The magistrate specified that the Supreme Court investigation would try to establish whether the leader of the extreme right was guilty of” insults, defamation and slanderous accusations, “in particular.
“The President of the Republic has insinuated the practice of illegal acts by members of the Supreme Court, using mass media (of false information) on social networks, to damage the Judicial Power and jeopardize its independence”, Magistrate. Moraes wrote in his opinion. The investigation should refer in particular to a live broadcast of more than two hours on Facebook during which President Bolsonaro denounced, last Thursday, a fraud in the electronic voting system in force since 1996, without providing any evidence.
The Brazilian president’s attacks on the electoral system come when he is in a bad streak due to a clear erosion of his popularity due, in particular, to his management of the coronavirus crisis, considered dire by specialists. Jair Bolsonaro has for several weeks been largely given the loser in polls against his sworn enemy, former left-wing president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2010), if he decides to run for re-election. According to analysts, by repeatedly questioning the electoral system, the ground is set to question the outcome of the election in the event of defeat.