Brazil's Supreme Court takes oxygen away from Jair Bolsonaro's authoritarian escalation

The President of the Supreme Court of Brazil, Judge Luiz Fux, together with the President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, last February.Fellipe Sampaio / SCO / STF / STF

President Jair Bolsonaro is increasingly beset by legal proceedings against his campaign to influence next year's elections. Last Thursday, he was included in a new investigation by the Brazilian Supreme Court against fake news. In an internet broadcast two weeks ago, the president released partial information from a Federal Police investigation, and hinted without evidence a possible fraud in the electronic ballot boxes, used in Brazil since the 1990s. The Minister of the Court, Alexandre de Moraes, investigates Bolsonaro in a process over fraudulent news, which aroused the fury of the president.

Last Friday, another bomb was dropped against Bolsonaro.

Roberto Jefferson, president of the Brazilian Labor Party (PTB, for its acronym in Portuguese) and a faithful ally of Bolsonaro, was arrested on suspicion of being part of the Bolsonarista digital militias that destabilize Brazil.

Jefferson, a traditional politician who lost face in Brazil, became something of an informal spokesman for the president, recording videos proposing military intervention and attacks on the Supreme Court.

More information

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• "Brazil is the country in the world that feels most abandoned by those who govern it", by Juan Arias

The legal counterattack is a response from the Supreme Court to reverse the authoritarian escalation of the president and his allies. In the last two months, Bolsonaro has multiplied his provocations, offending Court ministers who rebut his campaign against the electronic ballot box, or suggesting that there may be an intervention "outside the four lines of the Constitution." On August 10, Bolsonaro encouraged an improvised parade of military vehicles in Brasilia, something that had not been seen since the dictatorship.

Court ministers, however, regard the president's gestures as increasingly creative authoritarian bluster, and nothing more. The military would not be willing to adventure, even when some government general suggests otherwise. The reading is that whoever waits for a Bolsonaro self-coup to stay in power, or a “Brazilian Capitol” —in allusion to the invasion of the US Congress by the Trumpists on January 6—, is wasting time. The courts have the power to repress any action of this type supported by the Constitution. “There are prevention mechanisms. If there is a threat, there will be no problem to avoid it ”, assures a source with traffic in the Court.

Bolsonaro, in turn, returned to the charge last Saturday with the announcement of the request for the dismissal of justices Alexandre de Moraes and Luís Roberto Barroso, the latter also president of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE).

The request will be delivered to the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco, giving more rope to a political crisis that is already affecting the economy in Brazil.

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The truth is that the pieces have moved in response to the president's unbridled campaign to stay in power, with major tactical victories in recent days.

Not only within the Supreme.

A Bolsonarist bill that could affect the call for 2022 fell in Congress. After pressure from Bolsonaro, the deputies voted on August 10 on a bill to return the printed vote, but it was denied.

Already in the Senate, the Parliamentary Investigation Commission (CPI) of the Pandemic continues to advance with more and more evidence of the omission of the Government in the fight against covid-19.

The verification of the Government's responsibilities in managing the pandemic, which has killed almost 570,000 people, "once again cornered the President," says Senator Randolfe Rodrigues, of the Rede party.

The role of the military

But deflating radical Bolsonarism will take much more than tactical victories.

The key to Brazilian democracy is the role of the military, whose uniformed ministers give prestige to the president's agenda.

There is a consensus in Brasilia that the high command of the Armed Forces will not embark on coup adventures, and they assure their interlocutors in Congress and the Judiciary that they will defend democracy.

The vice president, General Hamilton Mourão, would have met with one of the Court's ministers while Bolsonaro called attention to the parade of military vehicles through Brasilia last Tuesday, reported the newspaper

O Estado de S. Paulo

.

But the military participation in the Government and the inflammatory speeches of the president already influence indirectly, generating a climate of fear among parliamentarians at the time of some votes on the Parliamentary Commission of the Pandemic, for example. Senator Alessandro Viera, from the Citizenship party, perceived this when they wanted to summon the current Minister of Defense, Reserve General Braga Netto, in early August, for his role as coordinator of the Covid-19 crisis commission. “There are parliamentarians who fear an armed reaction. When this level is reached, there may no longer be democracy. Plena, at least, no, "says Vieira.

For now, it is known that the political crisis will spread and will test the limits of Congress, the Supreme Court and a part of society that still observes the authoritarian impulses of the Chief Executive impassively.

“I don't think the president is going to stop creating institutional crises for this or other reasons.

He needs these crises because he does not know how to govern, ”says deputy Marcelo Ramos.

"If he did not talk about printed votes, weapons or not having elections, he would have to talk about industrial policy, how to fight unemployment, how to reduce hunger in the country, and he does not know how to do it," he concludes.

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