The appointment of the Union’s attorney general, Jorge Messias, to fill the vacancy left by the retirement of minister Luís Roberto Barroso is the 11th by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to the Federal Supreme Court (STF). As a result, Lula only made fewer nominations than presidents Getúlio Vargas (21), Deodoro da Fonseca (15) and Floriano Peixoto (15).
Now, Messiah’s name will be sent to the Senate, which will debate and decide whether to endorse the nomination.
Throughout his first two terms as President of the Republic, Lula appointed eight ministers to the STF. They are: Cezar Peluso, Ayres Britto, Joaquim Barbosa, Eros Grau, Ricardo Lewandowski, Cármen Lúcia, Menezes Direito and Dias Toffoli. Of these, only Cármen and Toffoli still remain in the STF.
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If when announcing his first nominations to the STF in 2003, Lula stated that “the Federal Supreme Court is not a court of friends”, in his third term as President, the president has privileged names from his inner circle. During this term, Lula appointed his former lawyer Cristiano Zanin to fill the vacancy left with the retirement of Ricardo Lewandowski and the former Minister of Justice Flávio Dino for the position opened with the retirement of Rosa Weber. Both nominations were made in 2023.
With the new nomination, if it is endorsed in the Senate, there will be five ministers in the current composition of the STF appointed by Lula.
See Lula’s appointments
- Cezar Peluso, appointed in May 2003 to the position previously held by Minister Sydney Sanches; retired at age 70 in 2012;
- Ayres Britto, appointed in May 2003, occupied the chair after Ilmar Galvão retired; retired at age 70 in 2012;
- Joaquim Barbosa, appointed in May 2003, to replace José Carlos Moreira Alves; requested early retirement in 2014, at age 59;
- Eros Grau, appointed in May 2004, to replace minister Maurício Corrêa; retired in 2010, about to turn 70;
- Ricardo Lewandowski, appointed in February 2006, filled the position of minister Carlos Velloso; retired in 2023, about to turn 75;
- Cármen Lúcia, appointed in May 2006 after Nelson Jobim’s retirement, was the second woman to occupy a position on the STF (the first was Ellen Gracie, appointed by Fernando Henrique Cardoso); remains in office;
- Menezes Direito, appointed in August 2007 after the retirement of Sepúlveda Pertence, and died two years later, in 2009, as a result of cancer;
- Dias Toffoli, appointed in September 2009 after the death of Menezes Direito; remains in office;
- Cristiano Zanin, appointed in June 2023, after Ricardo Lewandowski’s retirement; remains in office;
- Flávio Dino, appointed in November 2033, after Rosa Weber’s retirement; remains in office.
Who is Messiah?
A career public servant, Messias was a Central Bank attorney and National Treasury attorney. When he became involved in the AGU careers union movement, he worked at the Ministry of Education, under Mercadante’s management, where he was Secretary of Regulation. It was during this period that he began to get closer to PT leaders.
During the Dilma government, he was deputy head of Legal Affairs and worked with the former president in one of the PT’s most delicate moments at the Palácio do Planalto. At the time, his name was exposed nationally due to a telephone interception published by Lava Jato, in a conversation between Lula and Dilma, in March 2016. At the time, Dilma informed Lula that she would send, through “Bessias”, a term of office for him to sign and, thus, become minister of the Civil House. The interception was captured after the then judge Sergio Moro had ordered telephone operators to interrupt the recordings, which led to its disclosure being considered illegal by the Federal Supreme Court (STF).
Messias and Dilma never left each other. The former president attended Messias’ inauguration ceremony as AGU minister, in 2023, and at a dinner reserved for family and close friends. In 2019, Messias worked in the office of senator Jaques Wagner (PT-BA). With Lula’s victory in 2022, he played a prominent role in the transition, when he coordinated the group dedicated to topics related to Transparency, Integrity and Control.
Within the government, he built a close relationship with the Minister of Management, Esther Dweck, and the Minister of Agrarian Development, Paulo Teixeira. It also has among its main allies the ministers of the Civil House, Rui Costa, of Finance, Fernando Haddad, and the minister of Institutional Relations, Gleisi Hoffmann.
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