Accused of leading a coup plot, the former president () municipalized his own complaint that he was targeted with a series of pronouncements in which he threatened the egg whites that he could not accept the electoral result in 2022.
He, diagnosed as a risk to democracy when he was still in office, is now in the defendants’ bank and will be tried by the first class of the (Federal Supreme Court) on charges of crimes such as coup d’état and abolition of the Democratic Rule of Law, with a maximum penalty that could exceed 40 years in prison.
In the presidency, Bolsonaro sneel out the boundaries of office, accumulated attacks on other powers and made the toolbox available to the institutions to control it.
The target of a number of repudiation grades and unfavorable judicial decisions, the then chief executive was not the subject of any complaint from the (Attorney General’s Office) while he held the post, nor did he see any of the more than a hundred requests against him to prosper.
In the complaint signed by the current Attorney General, in office since the end of 2023, a live by Bolsonaro in July 2021 is seen as a milestone in the gradual increase in the aggressiveness of his speech.
In the weeks that followed the transmission, which consisted of a profusion of conspiracy theories without any proof of fraud, Bolsonaro made repeated statements against the (Superior Electoral Court) and the electoral process and summoned his followers to what would, according to him, be a “last message for those who dare to delege democracy.”
As a result, the country watched the eve of September 7, 2021, in Brasilia, and the caravans of protesters with posters asking for a military intervention to meet the next day to hear the then president threaten not to leave power in case of defeat.
“God only gets me out of there…” It was when Bolsonaro shouted not only that he would no longer fulfill “any decision” of the minister as he said he would only leave the “arrested, dead or with victory” presidency.
On the date, it also gave a kind of ultimatum to the STF: “or the boss of that power [Luiz Fux] Fits your [ministro] or this power can suffer what we do not want. “
According to Gonet, such a posture had a goal in itself: “inculcate a sense of indignation and revolt in its supporters and with the purpose of making it acceptable and even extending the use of strength against an electoral result in which his most consistent political opponent triumphered.”
Bolsonaro’s defense, in turn, criticizes the chain of events made by the accusation and says that the former president’s previous acts are not related to January 8 and that they would not be acts of execution of a crime. It also argued to the Supreme Court that the complaint seeks to “criminalize the political activity of the petitioner in general”.
Although it lit a red alert and at the time generated hard pronouncements including more committed actors, even September 7, 2021 was pacified without further repercussions for Bolsonaro after a retreat letter articulated by former President Michel Temer, with a connection to Moraes.
The denunciation argues that those manifestations reflected “the success of the first executory acts” of the organization: “the ranges exhibited by protesters already requested military intervention, revealing the strength of action coordinated by the group.”
When he was still headed by, PGR and said there was no crime to be investigated. Requests for filing or opening preliminary investigations, which in practice were viewed with delayed, were a PGR standard under trim with regard to the then president.
In the assessment of the professor at the Faculty of Law of USP and lawyer Rafael Mafei, one of the main learnings that can be extracted from all this scenario is that it is necessary to maintain the perception of the weight and power of the position of President.
“Much of the covenant with Bolsonaro came from people’s hope that their coexistence with other institutions and actors would be able to refrain or moderate it,” he says. “Not only did they not have tame it, but he even managed to identify aspects of the functioning of these institutions that allowed them to be captured.”
While attributing to the PGR inaction to the possibility of an indication of aras to a place in the Supreme Court, in the case of the MAFE Congress highlights the delivery of power over the budget in the hands of the legislature-which, coupled with the lack of endorsement to the then Bolsonaro deputy as successor, made it unattractive to get him out of the post.
Driven especially for conducting the pandemic, impeachment requests accumulated in the drawer of the presidents of Chamber Rodrigo Maia (then DEM) and (-al). In September 2021, even in the midst of the authoritarian escalation and the Covid CPI, they were, according to Datafolha.
In addition, the increasingly close 2022 elections and the preference of the left to compete against the then president were factors that weighed against the advance of the agenda.
Despite saving Bolsonaro from an impediment process, Congress imposed an important defeat on his crusade against the ballot box by blocking one of his discursive flags: the printed vote PEC.
Handled to preferred targets, the STF and the TSE were also the main barriers to the then president – not to feed at the same time the narrative of persecution he exploited.
Stoned in this same speech, Bolsonarism now campaigns, in the internal plane, for the approval of a wide general and unrestricted amnesty on January 8 in Congress, while seeking sanctions to Moraes with the Government of Donald Trump.
For Ana Laura Pereira Barbosa, Professor of Law at ESPM, an aspect that connects all facts narrated in the complaint refers to what they classify as populist behavior and authoritarian pretensions of Bolsonaro.
“Perhaps the biggest lesson is that attacks on democracy cannot be underestimated. It is not because the coup did not materialize that there was no attempt to actually directly attack the institutions of our democracy,” he says.
See some of Bolsonaro’s statements of statements cited in the PGR complaint:
Live against the ballot box
(29.jul.2021)
“In non -democratic regimes – that there is an election in a non -democratic basis either – that wins election is not the one who votes, is the one who counts the vote. We will be living with this distrust until when?”
“One of the people’s wills are clean elections. Why does the president of the TSE want to keep the suspicion about elections? Who is he? Why does he keep interfering around? With what power?”
“The Green Oil Army is the Army of Brazil. Neither was it missing, when the nation so called the men of the Armed Forces. History lived difficult times, but our freedom was preserved. Where the Armed Forces did not welcome the calling of the people, the people lost their freedom.”
(3.ago.2021)
“If Minister Barroso remains insensitive, as it seems to be insensitive, they want a process against me, if the people so desired, because I owe loyalty to the Brazilian people, a concentration in Paulista to give one last message to those who dare to deleting democracy. I repeat, the last message to understand what is happening, will hear the people, I will be there.”
Live on PF Inquiry
(4.ago.2021)
“Elections under suspicion are not elections. This is not democracy. And Mr. Minister Barroso, I am sorry. But the Lord is attacking democracy. This is a crime and does not want to accuse others of what, it seems, so that the Lord is,”
Acts of September 7, 2021
“I could not participate in a scam like this sponsored by the Superior Electoral Court”
“I just get arrested, killed or with victory. I want to tell scoundrels that I will never be arrested”
“Or boss of this power, it fits yours or this power may suffer what we do not want, because we value, recognize and know the value of each power of the Republic”
Meeting with Ambassadors
(18.jul.2022)
“Why does such a statement? [ministro Edson Fachin] Already anticipating that his candidate, that he has made eligible, will win the elections? And on the side would there be a reaction? Result of elections is fulfilled. Now we are trying to anticipate a problem that matters to everyone. The whole world wants democratic stability in Brazil “
“I thank you for your presence pledged. Because I know you all want democratic stability in our country. And it will only be achieved with transparent, reliable elections.”
Speak to supporters in dawn
(9.dez.2022)
“Decisions when they are exclusively ours are less difficult and less painful. But when they go through other sectors of society they are more difficult and should be worked. If something goes wrong, it is because I lost my leadership.”
“We have watched, day after day, absurd happen here in our homeland (…). And today they are living a crucial moment. A crossroads. A destination that the people have to take. Who decides my future, where I go to you!
