Five judges from the nation’s highest electoral court agreed that Bolsonaro used government communication channels to promote his campaign and sowed mistrust in the elections. Two judges voted against.
“This decision will end Bolsonaro’s chances of being president again, and he knows it,” said Carlos Melo, a professor of political science at Sao Paulo’s Insper University. “After this, he’ll try to stay out of jail, he’ll pick some of his allies to keep his political capital, but it’s highly unlikely that he’ll ever return to the presidency.”
The case centered on a July 18, 2022 meeting in which Bolsonaro used government personnel, the state television channel and the presidential palace in Brasilia to tell foreign ambassadors that the country’s electronic voting system was rigged.
In her decisive vote that reached the majority, Judge Carmen Lucía —who is also a magistrate of the Federal Supreme Court— said that “the facts are incontrovertible.”
“The meeting did take place. It was summoned by the then president. Your content is available. It was examined by everyone, and there was never a denial that it happened,” he said.
Alexandre de Moraes, also an STF judge, said the decision represents a rejection of “populism reborn from the flames of malicious and anti-democratic discourse that promotes egregious disinformation.”
Speaking to reporters in Minas Gerais, Bolsonaro said the trial was unfair and politically motivated.
“We are going to talk to the lawyers. Life goes on, ”she replied when asked what his next step will be. She described the ruling as an attack on Brazilian democracy. “It’s a pretty tough time.”
Melo considered that it is “very unlikely” that the decision, which leaves Bolsonaro out of the 2024 and 2028 municipal elections, as well as the 2026 general elections, will be revoked. The former president also faces other legal problems, including criminal investigations. . If he is convicted criminally in the future, it could extend his electoral ineligibility for years and even send him to prison.
Former President Fernando Collor de Mello and current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva have been declared ineligible in the past, but Bolsonaro’s case marks the first time a president has been suspended for election-related violations rather than a criminal offense. Brazilian law prohibits candidates convicted of criminal offenses from running for office.
The Federal Supreme Court reinstated Lula’s eligibility after rulings that then-judge and now senator Sergio Moro was biased when he sentenced the leftist leader to nearly 10 years in jail for corruption and money laundering.
Maria Maris, a 58-year-old engineer in Rio de Janeiro, welcomed the ruling, though she suspected it might have been politically motivated.
“My fear is that Bolsonaro will appeal and run in the next presidential election, despite the fact that he was made ineligible today,” Maris said.
Bolsonaro exercises a ceremonial leadership role in the Liberal Party and has traveled Brazil criticizing Lula, who won last October’s election by the narrowest margin in more than three decades.
Thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed government buildings on January 8 — a week after Lula took power — in an attempt to overthrow the leftist president. The rapid imprisonment and prosecution of hundreds of people who participated had a chilling effect on their rejection of the election results. Federal police are investigating Bolsonaro’s role in inciting the uprising. Bolsonaro has denied having committed any crime.
Gleisi Hoffmann, president of the Workers’ Party — to which Lula belongs — said on her social media accounts that Bolsonaro’s ineligibility offers a lesson.
“The extreme right needs to know that the political struggle is carried out within the democratic process, and not with violence and threatening to commit a coup,” he said. Bolsonaro “will be out of the game because he does not respect the rules. Not just him; his entire gang of coup plotters has to follow the same path”.
The trial has revived Bolsonaro’s fan base online. His supporters allege he is the victim of an unfair judicial system, and compare his fate to that of former US President Donald Trump, according to Marie Santini, coordinator of NetLab, a research group at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro that monitors social media. .
However, that turnout of supporters pales in comparison to the levels seen before last year’s polarizing vote.
The face of Katia Caminha, a 67-year-old retiree in the Copacabana neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, darkened when she heard the news that a majority of judges had voted against Bolsonaro. She told The Associated Press that she thinks the entire trial was a “slapstick.”
“Everything that has to do with the electoral court is biased and against” Bolsonaro. “This is terrible news for Brazil,” Caminha asserted.
This week, supporters of the former president continued to back him with contributions to help him pay 1.1 million reais (about $230,000) in fines imposed by the Sao Paulo state government related to Bolsonaro’s repeated violations of health protocols. during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although Bolsonaro aspires to be a major influencer on the right, and his endorsement of potential candidates will carry significant weight, his decision to go to Florida for several months early in Lula’s term weakened him, said Thomas Traumann, an analyst political. That’s reflected in the limited outrage from right-wingers on social media throughout the trial over his eligibility, and the lack of protest.
“There will not be a massive movement, because he decreased in size. The fact that he went to Florida and did not lead the opposition caused him to shrink in size,” Traumann said. “It is evident that the leader of the opposition is not Bolsonaro.”
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Jeantet reported from Rio de Janeiro. Associated Press writer Carla Bridi contributed to this report.
FUENTE: Associated Press
