Operations are a classic case of what economists call “rent seeking”. The term describes the behavior of those who seek economic gains via privileged access to those who have decision-making power over public policies. In practice, the search for advantages through political means generally involves and takes advantage of opportunities that no institutional design is capable of completely and definitively blocking.
What is already known about the frauds — and that is not all — brings to light an extensive and widespread web of access to decision-making centers in the government and in the other Powers of the Republic. But, unlike other notable scandals, this time the bomb did not explode either in the Planalto Palace or in the —although it affected some deputies. It exploded in full, right there, in the Federal Supreme Court.
There is no way to exaggerate the damage caused to the legitimacy of the court, on which the effectiveness of its role as guardian of the Constitution — and therefore, of democratic institutions — depends. And the timing couldn’t be worse.
The presidential election promises to be a fierce contest. The latest poll shows not only a tie between Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro in the second round. It also reveals that at least one of the three right-wing pre-candidates — Ratinho Jr. — is close to drawing with the current president.
Whichever right-handed candidate breaks the barrier in the first round, PT and anti-PTism will once again split the electorate — and the decision, as in 2014 and 2022, will be close, very close. The fierce competition will require a lot from the (Superior Electoral Court) to ensure fairness to the dispute. And even more so, as it is possible that the results will be contested, as they were, timidly, in 2014, and with explicit coup, in 2022.
There is no need to remember the performance of the TSE and the STF in guaranteeing free elections and, subsequently, in fulfilling the will of the majority. And, most especially, in the trial of Bolsonaro and his accomplices who tried, first, to delegitimize the selection process and, later, to reverse it through a coup d’état.
It is no coincidence that the authoritarian plot has always been based on attacking the Supreme Court, portrayed as an unbridled power, the enemy of individual freedoms. It is not gratuitous that, now, Bolsonarism once again presents the court as a corrupt and limitless power. Under the impact of the Master case revelations, the Bolsonarist discourse tends to gain increased strength, given the evidence of a judge’s involvement in Vorcaro’s business and the suspicions that hover over another.
As my colleague Marcus André Melo suggested in his , it is worth distinguishing between individual corruption and the decisions of the STF when it tried to defend democracy from its enemies. This distinction is of no interest to the far right, which disdains representative institutions. It can only be credible if the court itself is capable of carrying it out, seeking a solution that escapes the corporatist defense of its colleagues.
There is no other way to recover the lost authority and legitimacy that are so necessary to protect democracy.
LINK PRESENT: Did you like this text? Subscribers can access seven free accesses from any link per day. Just click the blue F below.
