The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) decided on Friday, June 30, to declare Jair Bolsonaro unfit until 2030 for abuse of political power and abuse of the media for attacking without evidence the electronic voting system used in Brazil, during a meeting with ambassadors summoned to do so in Palácio da Alvorada, in July 2022.
Carmen Lúcia and Alexandre de Moraes, members of that college and judges of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), joined three other magistrates who had previously voted in forming a majority of five of the seven possible votes for the conviction of the former president of Brazil . Nunes Marques, who also holds positions at the TSE and the STF, disagreed, as did a colleague.
“The whole production of that event in Alvorada was made so that TV Brasil would publicize it and multiply the disinformation machine of social networks to reach the electorate,” said Alexandre de Moraes.
Braga Netto, Bolsonaro’s 2022 vice presidential candidate, also stood trial, but was acquitted by a vote of seven to none.
Bolsonaro must now appeal to the TSE and STF and try to vote for amnesty in the National Congress. He immediately responded to the result: “Not long ago they tried to kill me in Juiz de Fora with a stab in the stomach, today I was stabbed in the back because I was not eligible for abuse of political power”.
In turn, Lula da Silva’s Workers’ Party wrote on social media that it was “a great day”. “Bolsonaro, with a majority in the TSE, has just been rendered ineligible for eight years for all the attacks on democracy and for the crimes he has committed against our country.”
Former presidential candidate Ciro Gomes, of the PDT, the party that initiated the action, said the party wanted to “protect democracy and punish Bolsonaro’s abuse of political power. Bolsonaro does not qualify for the rule of law.”
Since conviction was already a likely scenario, Bolsonaro and his party, the PL, are planning the next municipal elections, in 2024, under the banner of alleged “political persecution”. “The idea is that this scenario will transfer even more votes to those who support Bolsonaro in next year’s municipal elections. The PL’s intention is to increase the number of cities controlled by the party from 300 to 1,000,” wrote columnist Bela Megale , from O Globo, before the trial
And the party is also preparing for the 2026 presidential election without the ineligible Bolsonaro and perhaps also without Lula, who promised during the campaign not to run for re-election but is now showing signs that he will not keep his promise.
Therefore, the path of succession has already been taken by the PL, whose commercials on Brazilian television in recent weeks have made Michelle Bolsonaro, the former first lady and current president of PL Mulher, the protagonist. Despite being involved in the case of Saudi jewels diverted from the presidential collection to his own home by her husband, Michelle remains a personal bet of PL president Valdemar Costa Neto who sees her electoral potential even more supported by her husband.
“If Bolsonaro is not a candidate, we have Michelle at launch [da candidatura de 2022] of Bolsonaro in Maracanãzinho, it has revealed itself, so if he is a candidate, he will be a very strong candidate, if he is not a candidate, he will be even stronger, because this right-wing movement is here to stay,” said Costa Neto before the jewelry box.
However, other names are lining up to fly the banner of “Bolsonarianism without Jair”. From the beginning, that of the defeated vice-presidential candidate Braga Netto, a general who assumed the position of Secretary of Institutional Relations of the PL, founded the party’s political observatory, a center for preparing opposition proposals to the government- Lula, already around the country accompanied Michelle and walked away from the trial unharmed. Seen as a relevant framework, Braga Netto can run for mayor of Rio de Janeiro next year to gain body for the 2026 presidential election.
On the political scene, Governors Tarcísio Freitas and Romeu Zema, of Republicans and Novo, parties in the orbit of the PL, are also natural “candidates for candidates”. The former won the government of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest in the country, defeating Fernando Haddad, now Lula’s finance minister, and is seen, with a technical and managerial profile, as the main exponent of the most palatable side of the bolsonarianism.
But he has against him the fact that he is in his first term, under pressure to seek re-election, unlike Zema, who is serving his second term, and is therefore free to take the national challenge in 2026.
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However, the action regarding the meeting with ambassadors to report fraud without evidence was only one of 16 other investigations in the TSE.
Including the electoral use of social programs during the election campaign, such as anticipating the transfer of Auxílio-Brasil and Auxílio-Gás benefits; increase in the number of families benefiting from the Auxílio-Brasil; advance payment of aid to truck drivers and taxi drivers: debt negotiation program with public banks, among others.
It also faces a complaint from the PT about the use of an “ecosystem of disinformation” formed by Bolsonarist profiles based on Councilor Carlos Bolsonaro’s digital strategy, in addition to three actions about the electoral use of the September 7 parade last year . during the celebration of the bicentenary of independence, in the presence of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
Three other actions are investigating whether the former president committed abuses during official trips to Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral and to the UN. Three more lawsuits are pending against the use of Palácio da Alvorada for the election campaign, through lives and events, a complaint about privileged treatment of the right-wing broadcaster Jovem Pan during the election period and another for an alleged parallel campaign conducted by businessmen, pastors and religious entities.
On the criminal front, on May 3, the Federal Police executed a search and seizure warrant at the home of the former president, in Brasília, to investigate alleged fraud with the vaccination card against Covid-19. Bolsonaro is still in the crosshairs of justice over the aforementioned Saudi jewel embezzlement scandal and his involvement in the January 8 attacks.
Ailás, still a deputy sheriff since 2014, is suspected of a total of 25 crimes, including negligence in the pandemic, inciting the rape of a deputy sheriff, for which he will still answer.
Source: DN
