For the second time, the ministers of the (Supreme Court) and follow themselves in charge of a body in a moment of high tension and marked by attacks on the judiciary.
In 2022, the threat was internal. Fachin assumed the presidency of the (Superior Electoral Court) at a time when the then president () once again climbed the tone of contestation to the polls and – and when the participation of the military in court, aligned with the interests of the then agent.
After more than three years, the minister will receive Barroso’s stick again on Monday (29). This time, however, to assume the presidency of the Supreme. If before the focus of concern came from, now it comes from outside.
Fachin assumes the court in the face of a challenging and unprecedented campaign.
In addition to applying 50% rates to Brazil, citing as one of the justifications Bolsonaro’s trial, the president of the president, has already canceled views of most Supreme magistrates and applied the magnitsky law – a sanction for torturers and human rights violators – to Minister Alexandre de Moraes. Last week, the punishment was extended.
A few days after the tariff, applied in July, Minister Barroso published a demonstration on the court’s website saying that the immediate political response was fitting to the Executive, but that, as head of the judiciary, it was up to him to reconstitution of the facts.
According to the minister, those in the country in recent years. “In addition to other demonstrations of the President of the Court denying, for example, that there would be a witch hunt against Bolsonaro, two court notes were published about the punishments.
Despite having a more contained and reserved profile than most of its peers, Fachin the US posture.
“I understand that punishing a judge for decisions I have made is a bad example of improper interference. Especially when it comes from a foreign country,” he said in a lecture last month, while also spoke of the importance of self -restarting the judiciary.
Ana Cláudia Santano, who is coordinator of the Brazil Electoral Transparency and closely followed the challenges of the 2022 election, representing civil society in the TSE transparency committee, points out that the scenario is now another. “It is a much more complex challenging moment precisely because these conflicts are not internal, they are international,” she says, pointing to Trump’s unpredictability as a complication.
The law teacher also evaluates that the situation on how to respond to sanctions brings a dilemma. It ponders, for example, that the court must be very careful to publish notes on sanctions so as not to enter Brazilian diplomacy competences and that there is no further judgment on proceedings.
If it is already unknown as the Trump topic will unfold – and if the worst has passed – along his term, Fachin must face other challenging and turbulent moments.
After the former president’s trial, pockets promise and the defense of a broad amnesty. The result of the next election may increase or decrease the temperature of the launched scenario. Under the rapporteur of Minister Gilmar Mendes, there is already more than one action at the Court on impeachment of ministers.
And although the armor PEC has been buried, there is no point in the ghost that proposals advance in Congress – unintentious with actions involving parliamentary amendments.
In the assessment of Ana Laura Pereira Barbosa, Professor of Law at ESPM (School of Advertising and Marketing), it will be positive if Fachin will reform the decision process of the Court, to strengthen it. “It would be a way through which the court could be even more protected from attacks and reinforce its independence, impartiality and competence to arbitrate constitutional issues,” she says.
In addition to highlighting Fachin’s most discreet personality as a positive aspect for the construction of the court’s image as a collegiate body, Ana Laura believes that, after the bulk of the actions of 8 January and Bolsonaro’s trial, the minister will have greater action potential than Barroso with the court agenda.
In 2022, when he was at the head of the TSE, in which he also had an administrative function, Fachin maintained a firm position amid the tension generated by Bolsonaro.
In addition to accumulating strong statements in defense of the Electoral Justice and the election, the minister acted to better structure the court team that dealt with electoral disinformation and to inform and prepare the international community about what was happening in Brazil.
He also sought, in the face of the armed forces’ casting of questions giving ammunition to the campaign against the polls undertaken by the then president, isolate such actions. In addition to having or requests to, outside the commission he had been, Fachin even stated, for example, that those who “deal with election are unarmed forces” and that to intervene in the Electoral Court.
“To remove the Electoral Justice from their duties will have to remove this president from his presidency. Yes dialogue,” he said at an event at the time of the former president’s attacks.
