Presidential candidate Renan Santos of the Missão party called on Monday (7) for the immediate removal of Supreme Court ministers Alexandre de Moraes and Dias Toffoli, Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues and prosecutor general of the Republic Paulo Gonet. The demands are part of a manifesto he presented at a rally by the Obelisk in Ibirapuera park, in southern São Paulo, on Brazil's Independence Day holiday.
According to G1, the document also calls for the investigations into Banco Master to continue "at any cost", including the conduct of political, business and legal figures. "Let the black box of Banco Master be opened and let them all go to jail", Renan said.
Folha de S.Paulo reports the rally sought to capitalize on the damage caused to the court and to the Federal Police leadership by recent revelations about the ties between officials and former banker Daniel Vorcaro, the former owner of Banco Master. According to the newspaper, the manifesto lists four demands, among them the immediate removal and arrest of Toffoli and Moraes.
The manifesto
The document, called "Manifesto for the Future of the Nation", was read to supporters and presented as a "final summons in favor of the nation's future". It calls the Brazilian political debate a "farce" and denies the country is split by ideological polarization.
"There is no polarization. The hegemonic right and the governing left are dominated by the same partners in crime, Daniel Vorcaro among them. The Supreme Federal Court, the central piece of this arrangement, has gangsters in its ranks, men who have settled into everyday banditry", says the manifesto read by the candidate.
In his speech, Renan attacked the country's elites. "Our elite is trash. The people who hold positions of power in Brazil deserve the trash our country has become. They are co-responsible for it. They are the failure", he said. He also targeted the two poll leaders, as Folha describes them: President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party, whom he cast as the risk of an authoritarian government of the left, and Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL, whom he tied to an "oligarchy of corrupt centrão politicians".
A new Constitution
Renan defended convening a new Constitution. "We need to win the elections so that our country becomes a nation, so that we get a new Constitution. This must be said: our Constitution and our constituent lawmakers have failed", he said. According to G1, he did not detail how a constituent process would be called or which parts of the 1988 charter he wants to change.
On public safety, he said police officers should shoot armed criminals and rejected calls to label the idea radical. He then said: "I do not accept this democracy that makes Brazilians slaves of organized crime and thieves the owners of our streets. If that is democracy to you, I am not a democrat."
The rally feeds into a presidential race in which, according to Folha, Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro lead the polls. Renan said the scenario frightened him. "The Brazilian people show that the goal was never to fight corruption, never to have a decent country, but to say that your thief steals less than your neighbor's thief", he said.