Brazil: Crisis of Legitimacy Deepens in Farcical Display in the Supreme Federal Court
Featured image: Luiz Inácio and Alexandre Moraes. Source: O Globo
The Supreme Federal Court of Brazil has, after the attempted coup in 2022, been presented as “the last frontier,” “guarantor,” and “maintainer” of the so-called “democratic rule of law,” A Nova Democracia (AND) reports. On September 15, a court case was set to initiate investigations into the Banco Master Case, handling connections between its major shareholder Daniel Vorcaro, and Justice of the Supreme Court Alexandre de Moraes – when a total farce broke loose.
The implications of the financial relations uncovered in the Banco Master Case is still being revealed, but so far it reaches far into the pockets of the electoral circus, and reveals far reaching connections between capital and the old State institutions. Including Moraes, Luiz Inácio’s previous Minister of Finance, Guido Mantega, the previous Minister of Justice and retired Justice of the Supreme Federal Court, Ricardo Lewandowski, as well as presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, are all implicated in the case, just to mention a few.
AND writes: “Never before has the bankruptcy of the decaying institutions of the old Brazilian bureaucratic-landowning state appeared so openly in the very plenary of the judicial caste: two ministers left the vote, the rapporteurship was contested, members of the Court called each other liars, accused each other of manipulating investigations and acting out of political-electoral interests, and even shouted at each other while discussing who could investigate, report on, and judge their own “unblemished” members. A true circus, concluded without any decision on Moraes after Flávio Dino requested a review and suspended the case for up to 90 days – a period that could push its resumption to December.”
After the aptly named “henhouse” incident in the Supreme Court, the opportunists in the Workers Party (PT), after a long-lasting policy of not mentioning the case at all, changed their tactics. Already on the next day, September 16, Luiz Inácio was calling the Banco Master Case a “pure orgy,” advocating for the opening of Daniel Vorcaro’s cellphone logs, and using the scandal for his own electoral gain against his electoral opponents, even when several of the implicated are his own previous ministers.
AND reports that the decision for a review that ended the trial of Moraes without a decision, had been orchestrated for days by Flávio Dino, Gilmar Mendes, Christiano Zanin and Moraes himself. The maneuver had two objectives: to gain time to try to consolidate the cases of Moraes and André Mendonça, and to prevent the crisis from continuing to be judged on the eve of the October 4 election. There are no indications of when the case will resume, but Dino has up to 90 days to return it to court.
