Brazil's presidential candidates reacted on Tuesday (15) to a session of the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), the country's top court, that will decide whether Justice Alexandre de Moraes faces an investigation. Ronaldo Caiado of the PSD and Romeo Zema of the Novo party demanded Moraes's immediate removal. Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL released a video tying President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the PT to the justice. Lula, who is running for reelection, ignored questions about the case.
It is the first time in the court's history that the justices have met to decide whether to investigate one of their own. The session examines a Federal Police report that pointed to 52 messages between Moraes and Daniel Vorcaro, former owner of Banco Master, who is jailed in a billion-dollar fraud case. According to Metrópoles, the document lists messages sent by Vorcaro to the justice and does not show what, if anything, was answered. Before the session began, Justice Dias Toffoli declared himself barred by conflict of interest and Kassio Nunes Marques stepped aside. "As president of the TSE (the electoral court), I do not feel comfortable taking part in this judgment, and I affirm my impediment," Nunes Marques said, according to BBC News Brasil.
Opposition trains fire on Moraes
Flávio Bolsonaro, the eldest son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, posted a video statement minutes before the session started. "The current president divided his power with Alexandre de Moraes," he said. In the recording, cited by Metrópoles, the senator said the government "created an institutional imbalance" and "decided to govern alongside a part of the Supreme Federal Tribunal that broke the law". He added that the administration "is part of this rotten system". Folha de S.Paulo reported that he kept linking Lula's government to Moraes throughout the day.
Caiado took to social media during the session. "The only acceptable course will be the immediate removal of Justice Alexandre de Moraes," the senator wrote, saying he had never seen "a scandal of this gravity" hit the court and calling the session historic. Zema called a rally on the lawn across from Congress to pressure the court as the justices met.
"This demonstration is not about left or right. It is the demonstration of Brazilians' outrage at the abuses we are seeing at the Supreme Court, not only by Alexandre de Moraes but by nearly all the justices," Zema told Metrópoles.
The Novo candidate also said Brazilians "no longer accept this clown show" from Moraes at the court. In an interview, he said he hopes the justice's removal "will be the first of many", according to SBT News.
Lula avoids the issue
President Lula was asked by reporters about the session and did not comment, according to Estadão. His campaign is working to separate the president's image from the justice's, as reported by Metrópoles. Lula has publicly called for lifting the secrecy over the Banco Master investigations. Renan Santos, another presidential candidate, said the absence of Nunes Marques could favor Moraes in the vote, according to Tribuna do Norte. Brazil holds the first round of the election in less than three weeks, and a Quaest poll released on Monday (14) put Flávio Bolsonaro numerically ahead of Lula in a possible runoff, 42% to 40%, within the margin of error.
The court suspended the session in the early afternoon and resumed at 2pm. On the return, STF President Edson Fachin said the justices will take up a procedural motion filed by Justice Gilmar Mendes proposing to suspend the judgment, draw a new rapporteur by lot and merge the case with a hearing already scheduled for September 23. The Prosecutor General's office has asked that the Federal Police procedure behind the report be voided. The deadline for Justice André Mendonça to respond to the partiality accusations Moraes filed against him ends on September 21.