The minister leaves that of (Supreme Court) on Monday (29) after commanding the court during a former president by coup in the country’s history.
The decision was the height of a conflicting period among the magistrate. Even before assuming the main position of the judiciary, the minister was already a constant target of (PL). And before taking charge of the court, they set the relationship between the former president’s supporters and the court on fire.
Barroso, who will be succeeded by Edson Fachin, did not participate in the trial of the coup plot, but was in the session that defined the penalties of the accused of forming the central nucleus. “I believe we are ending the cycles of delay in Brazilian history, marked by coup and the breakdown of constitutional legality,” he spoke after the conviction.
“I wish, very sincerely, that we are becoming a page of Brazilian life. And that we can reconstruct relationships, pacify the country and work for a common, truly patriotic agenda. With the natural differences of democracy, but without intolerance, extremism or incivility,” he added.
Nominated to the Supreme Court by Dilma Rousseff in 2013, Barroso assumed the presidency of the Supreme Ten years later, with a discourse in defense of the national unity. “Democracy has won and we need to work for the pacification of the country,” he said in his possession.
Months earlier, two statements from him became pocket ammunition to question the minister’s exemption. In one of them, in New York, the magistrate responded to supporters of the former president who harassed the members of the court.
answered Barroso. The phrase, rendered less than a month after Bolsonaro’s electoral defeat to Lula, became a mantra from Bolsonarism and ended up banged by a protester in the statue to justice in front of the Supreme during the January 8 attacks.
At another time, Barroso spoke at the 59th Congress of UNE (National Student Union), in July 2023, when he said :.
The statement motivated an impeachment request against him in the Senate. From 2021 to July this year, he was the second largest target of such representations, behind only Moraes. The last presented by parliamentarian is authored by the deputy (PL-SC), also based on these statements.
The minister said in an interview with TV Cultura’s Roda Viva program that the speech was inoportune.
“It was an unfortunate phrase. First that ‘us’ gave the supreme. I meant it was Brazilian society. It was shortly after the election. Second, I never went to fog the debate, I don’t like to go away,” he said. “Therefore, I wanted to say ‘extremism’.”
The trial on the coup plot took the Supreme to the spotlight in the internal and external scenarios. The natural protagonism of the President of the Court, however, was overshadowed by the performance of Minister Alexandre de Moraes – the process and preferential target of pockets.
In addition, criminal actions on the attempted coup were restricted to the first class, which reduced the attention and sensitive themes in the court plenary.
Still, during Barroso’s management, the Supreme Court suffered two of the most striking attacks since redemocratization: a man exploded himself in front of the court’s headquarters, and US President Donald Trump applied sanctions against court ministers.
Francisco Wanderley Luiz died when he lie in an explosive in front of the Supreme Court in an attempt to attack the court in November 2024. The ministers were in the court plenary in session as the man approached.
The attack occurred at a time when Barroso tried to reopen the Supreme to the public, with the removal of bars that restricted access to the court.
In February 2024, Barroso made an act with the presidents of the other powers for the removal of the gradis around the headquarters building. At the time, he said he was a “symbolic gesture of democratic normality and confidence in the return of people’s civility.”
From the attempt to attack, the minister again reinforced the security protocols.
He also needed to seek conciliation in the Supreme in the face of the sanctions imposed by the Trump government against the court ministers, which included revocation of visas from eight ministers, including Barroso himself, and the application of the magnitsky law to Alexandre de Moraes and his wife.
It was from Moraes himself, however, the main reactions in this case. He who determined Bolsonaro’s house arrest and maintained near dialogue with bankers to understand the reach of the restrictions imposed by the US government.
Barroso is the minister who has closer relations with the United States. He lived and studied in the country, where he has a property, and is a collaborating professor at Harvard Kennedy School. Because of the restrictions, he advised one of his children to return to Brazil and leave the position he held at BTG Pactual in Miami.
Internally, the minister consolidated the good relations with Gilmar Mendes, an old disaffection with whom he starred in the most famous clashes in the history of the court. The rapprochement had begun in the presidency of Bolsonaro, with the pandemic and attacks on the STF.
The dean became a support even in political negotiations, as it is known for its articulation skill with various sectors, while Barroso had no easy entry into right offices in Congress.
Rumors that the minister should leave the Supreme after leaving the presidency follow strong, but Barroso himself does not deny the possibility.
A decision on the subject should only be made after the judiciary’s recess from December to February.
