Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE) suspended all campaign activity and the release of public funds to Deltan Dallagnol of the Novo party, a Senate candidate in Parana, in a preliminary ruling issued on Saturday (19). The injunction came from Justice Floriano de Azevedo Marques, who asked the court's presidency to schedule the case for judgment by the full bench, virtual or in person, within days, according to G1.
The order answers an appeal from the Parana Para Todos coalition and the Brasil da Esperanca federation, the bloc led by the Workers' Party (PT), against a Parana regional electoral court ruling that had cleared Dallagnol's candidacy about ten days earlier, as Estadao reported. Until the full court decides, he is barred from using public money, from free campaign advertising on radio and television, and from campaign events, including debates.
The justice's reasoning
Marques based the injunction on a 2022 unanimous TSE ruling that Dallagnol's resignation as a federal prosecutor was a fraud on the law, aimed at preventing 15 administrative proceedings pending against him at the National Council of the Public Prosecutor's Office (CNMP) from becoming disciplinary cases that could result in dismissal or compulsory retirement. Those proceedings were later archived, but in the justice's view that happened because Dallagnol had left the prosecutor's office, not because he had been acquitted.
"At the time of the resignation, all these proceedings were under review, with no element indicating that a favorable or acquitting decision for the candidate would be issued. On the contrary, the expectation at the time was that penalties of dismissal or compulsory retirement would be effectively applied," Marques wrote.
Dallagnol was the coordinator of the Lava Jato task force in Curitiba, the team of federal prosecutors behind the sweeping corruption investigation that reshaped Brazilian politics in the 2010s. In the justice's assessment, a resignation timed to avoid the disciplinary cases would have left him ineligible.
What is settled and what can still change
What is confirmed: the campaign is suspended and public money is blocked for as long as the injunction stands. What is provisional: the case now goes to the seven justices of the full TSE, who will rule on the candidacy itself. Some outlets, including Estadao and UOL, described Saturday's measure as a suspension of the candidacy; the immediate effect reported by G1 is the halt of campaign acts and funding.
For voters in Parana, the practical point is to follow the full court's ruling, promised within days and coming about two weeks before the first round of Brazil's national elections. The injunction can be upheld or reversed by the justices, and the shape of the Senate race in the state can still change before election day.