The minister, who ends his time at the (Supreme Federal Court) this week, was at the forefront of discussions that marked the court in the last decade and publicly exposed himself outside the court to defend his points of view.
With a combative style and at ease in the spotlight, Barroso decided to be one in the face of a deep split in the Supreme Court that emerged in the wake of the , which shook the political world and forced the court to take a position on various issues regarding its procedures.
The magistrate was part of the wing that constantly voted in favor of flags from the operation’s authorities, such as the possibility of coercive conduct, the permanence of cases in the Federal Court (and not sending them to the Electoral Court) and mainly legal understanding that would end up taking today’s President Lula to jail in 2018.
He said there was one against the processes and investigations. Furthermore, in 2019, he stated in a lecture that because there was “a perception in a large part of society and the Brazilian press that the STF is an obstacle in the fight against “.
Barroso debuted in the Supreme Court in the symbolic month of June 2013, when the country was taken over by demonstrations calling for changes in politics, and to hear “the voice of the streets”.
In 2018, he cited the suspension of a pardon decree signed by then-president Michel Temer, stating that the president’s measure reinforced “the ancestral culture of leniency and impunity.”
With Lava Jato under crisis and dismantlement, it initially maintained its positions. In the 2021 trial that resulted in the annulment of Lula’s conviction, the conversations on the Telegram app showing collaboration between the then judge and prosecutors were just a “pecadillo” and “slander”.
He added that there was an attempt at “revenge” against magistrates and prosecutors so that “no one ever again has the courage” to face corruption.
The topic lost space in the court’s agenda in the face of the growing clash between ministers and the government, which made clear coup threats and reacted to the investigations under the responsibility of Alexandre de Moraes.
Bolsonaro even announced that in 2021, when the minister held the presidency of the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) and countered the attacks made on electronic voting machines.
The ministers closed ranks in the institutional defense of the Supreme Court. Barroso, for example, exchanged affection and began to demonstrate alignment with Dean Gilmar Mendes, in plenary in 2018, in the context of the split over Lava Jato.
The setbacks to the investigation initiated in Curitiba multiplied, and the move into politics by Sergio Moro and the former prosecutor further increased the strain on the operation. The Supreme Court minister no longer publicly protested, for example, against the serial annulment of processes and evidence of the Petrobras scandal, which was also determined in 2023 by his colleague Dias Toffoli.
It was also during the minister’s management at the CNJ (National Council of Justice), in June this year, that the decision was made to remove the person responsible for Lava Jato in Rio de Janeiro and one of the stars of the operation, on charges of disciplinary infraction.
Deltan Dallagnol, who previously shared Barroso’s statements on social networks, converted to Bolsonar’s speech and began to criticize him.
Interestingly, the minister leaves the STF when replacing Edson Fachin, who now occupies the presidency of the court.
The next rapporteur for the operation should be the newest name nominated for the court by Lula, the main target of the Curitiba task force.
