It was supposed to be an ordinary day back from vacation, but the four years of attacks by the now ex-president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and the invasion of his followers to Praça dos Três Poderes on January 8th make this Wednesday (1st) an emblematic day for the Federal Supreme Court (STF). Ministers hold the first session of the Court in the year, opening a semester of work that has judgments scheduled until June, but with space for other agendas.
One of the most targeted targets by scammers frustrated in the barbarity of that Sunday, the plenary of the Supreme Court underwent intense reform in recent weeks to receive this Wednesday’s session. The agenda for the first day provides for discussions on tax issues.
Debates in the physical plenary always take place on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Minister Rosa Weber, president of the Court, published a calendar of agendas until the end of this semester. However, the schedule has room for other unforeseen discussions to enter the agenda. Bolsonarist attacks must be among these topics.
Criminal lawyer José Portella, a member of the Collective Advocates and Lawyers for Democracy (CAAD), recalls that the Supreme Court has already focused on democratic acts even before the January 8 episodes. This work, incidentally, is one of the motivating agents of Bolsonarist hatred against the Court, materialized mainly in the attacks on Minister Alexandre de Moraes, rapporteur of the inquiries.
For a long time, at least since 2021, Bolsonaro has already made clear anti-democratic demonstrations, and this included incitements against the STF itself. Since then, the discussions and investigations have advanced, as has the hostility and aggressiveness of the followers of the current ex-president.
“With January 8, things got much worse. The STF is acting more directly in relation to these issues that involve the defense of democracy, limits on freedom of expression, acts of violence of great magnitude. These issues are all of a very large collective reach, and they also deal with central issues of our Constitution”, highlights Portella.
For the lawyer, the Supreme Court should act in a “very incisive” way this semester in relation to anti-democratic demonstrations as the matter advances, even if the agenda for discussions announced by Rosa Weber did not foresee votes on the subject.
“Things are already boiling, we are seeing a lot of decisions by Alexandre de Moraes since the elections, intensifying blockades of social networks, blocking assets, arrests. Possibly we will see decisions, for example, questioning the tenure of parliamentarians who were involved in these acts of terror of January 8”, he evaluates.
Expectation and trust
The gaps in the agenda released by the president of the Supreme also open space for other agendas that were not initially foreseen. Among them, the time frame thesis. If approved, it will determine that only indigenous lands can be demarcated that were proven to be in the possession of the original peoples on October 5, 1988, the date on which the Federal Constitution was enacted.
:: Understand the time frame and learn how it affects the indigenous peoples of Brazil ::
The subject is of great interest to indigenous peoples. If the thesis is approved, peoples who, for example, have been removed from their territories and have not reoccupied them by the date of enactment of the constitution would lose the right to their traditional land. For this reason, people from all over the country demand that the Supreme Court resume the trial as soon as possible.
“There is an expectation that the case will be ruled and I think there is a feeling of confidence in the STF, that it will rule this as soon as possible”, says lawyer Juliana de Paula Batista, from the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA).
The lawyer recalled that Rosa Weber, now president of the Supreme Court, gave the vote that defined the issue of the time frame for quilombola communities. “She voted, at the time, against the time frame for the titling of quilombo lands, so we imagine that she also has an appreciation for this issue, understands the emergency of guiding this”, she adds.
Reconstruction
After four years of permanent tension caused by the then head of the executive branch, Jair Bolsonaro, the Supreme, in theory, will start a semester of work in which he will not have to deal with threats, insinuations and discrediting statements coming from the neighbor across the street – STF and Palácio do Planalto are separated by a distance that can be covered on foot in about five minutes.
More than that, the relationship with the Executive, now headed by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), will be guided by the reconstruction work to which the new Government has been dedicated since the early hours of January 1, when the mandate ended of Bolsonaro (although he was practically silent since the defeat in the elections and traveled abroad while still formally holding office).
“A very important point is the eventual guidelines that will originate from the enormous normative and administrative effort of the new Government, to rebuild the Brazilian State and its viability as an institution with operational capacity after what has been done with that same State in the last four years . The previous Government was very successful in its agenda of destroying what had been built in the last 40 years”, highlights lawyer Caio Leonardo Rodrigues, specialist in processes with political repercussions.
For Rodrigues, Rosa Weber has already demonstrated her strength in defending the democratic rule of law. For this reason, he assesses that the list of agendas planned for the Supreme Court this semester is “apparently lighter than usual” precisely so that there is space for intense discussions that will inevitably reach the plenary.
“Brazil needs to denazify itself, and the Supreme Court will play a role in that. Therefore, it needs to leave a window to deal with this matter. The anti-democratic acts are in place, but this demobilization of neo-fascist and neo-Nazi networks depends on investigation and measures that only History will place it at the head of the Supreme Court”, highlights lawyer Rodrigues.
“For us, who work with an ideal of Justice, we hope that the STF is not pressured by anyone. Neither by the right, nor by the left, nor by the Agricultural Parliamentary Front, nor by the Ruralist Caucus, nor by popular movements. Court has independence, autonomy and it can judge based on an adequate interpretation of the Constitution and with the guarantee of protection of these rights”, complements Juliana de Paula Batista.
Editing: Rodrigo Durão Coelho
