The appointment of the Union’s attorney general, , to the (Supreme Federal Court) may represent a challenge to the plan of self-restraint and avoidance of political conflicts adopted by the president of the court, .
That of the president of , (-AP), and a wing of the court, who preferred the senator (-MG). Since the PT member made the decision, the politicization surrounding the issue has only escalated.
The Senate subsequently approved one that regulates the special retirement of community health agents, and Alcolumbre scheduled it for December 10th, with a short deadline for Messias to reduce resistance.
Experts consider that part of the political tension is due more to the balance of forces between the Powers than to the appointments to the court and that the choice of Messiah is not necessarily incompatible with the lowering of the political temperature.
On the other hand, they say that Messias could go in the opposite direction if approved, with a history that signals a willingness to participate in politics more prominently and a comfort with the Judiciary’s role in public policies.
When he assumed the presidency of the Supreme Court, in September, rationality and focus on the duties specific to the Judiciary. “To the law what belongs to the law. To politics what belongs to politics”, stated the minister.
“Our credibility is directly proportional to the ability, through the process and through probative and impartial action, to provide legal, technical and reality-appropriate responses,” he said. “Jurisdictional provision is not a spectacle. It requires restraint.”
For Luiz Fernando Esteves, professor of constitutional law at Insper, there are signs that the relationship with politics may be more tense with Messias in the STF. The greatest example may be the National Prosecutor’s Office of the Union for the Defense of Democracy.
It is a body created in 2023 to operate in . The opposition said they saw it as an attempt at censorship and dubbed it the Ministry of Truth, in reference to the book “1984”, a work by George Orwell.
“The creation of this prosecutor’s office was a sign that the AGU wanted to participate more prominently in politics. We can expect similar behavior from Messias when he is in the position of minister, if he is confirmed”, says Esteves.
Confirmation depends on approval in the Senate. The candidate goes through a hearing at the CCJ (Constitution and Justice Commission), which votes on an opinion. With the approval of the collegiate, the name is voted on in the plenary, where it must be approved by at least 41 of the 81 senators.
Messias made his career in Brasília. In 2016, when he was deputy head of legal affairs at the Civil House, after the then judge and now senator (União Brasil-PR) disclosed a conversation between the former president and the former president ().
The dialogue, an episode of a wiretap by , was understood at the time by the STF minister as an indication that the appointment had as its main objective to obstruct the investigations and avoid a possible arrest of Lula.
In the audio, Dilma’s speech suggests that she calls him “Bessias”.
Thiago Filippo, researcher at the Center for Research in Law and Social Sciences at Uerj (State University of Rio de Janeiro), states that the politicization of the Supreme Court is more linked to the dynamics between the Powers than to the appointment of ministers.
Furthermore, he says that the hypothesis of the minister’s identification with the figure who nominated him was “completely destroyed” by the literature. “Anyone who is expecting absolute loyalty from Jorge Messias to the PT and Lula’s agenda has a very naive expectation.”
“The entry of yet another minister who comes with a lot of proximity to politics is obviously challenging for this plan [de Fachin de reduzir a temperatura política]but it is not incompatible”, says Álvaro Palma Jorge, professor at FGV Direito Rio.
For him, there is not necessarily a relationship between the fact that the minister was appointed by the president after holding a position in the federal Executive and the propensity to be more or less restrained in his manifestations, in clashes with other Powers.
Palma Jorge considers, in reference to the work at AGU: “It is difficult to draw unshakable conclusions from this set, because a lawyer acts like a lawyer. A lawyer represents one part, one argument. It is natural to defend certain interests.”
The professor states, however, that the academic production of the Union’s attorney general can provide some clues. Messias is the author of a doctoral thesis entitled “The Government Center and the AGU: Brazilian Development Strategies in the Global Risk Society”.
In it, he defends the role of the Judiciary in implementing the government’s agenda. “Whether or not we like judicialization and judicial activism, we know that they are part of Brazilian institutions post-1988”, wrote the head of the AGU in the work.
According to Palma Jorge, he demonstrates comfort with the participation of Justice in the institution of public policies, a topic that tends to generate friction, especially with the Legislature, and .
