The former governor of Minas Gerais Romeu Zema (Novo), pre-candidate for the Presidency, again compared this Monday, 20th, the actions of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) to cases of pedophilia committed by members of the Catholic Church. The criticism comes after Minister Gilmar Mendes sent a representation to Minister Alexandre de Moraes asking for an investigation into Zema for sharing a video mocking the Court’s ministers on his social networks.
“I am far from having any radical or extremist position. Now, to say that I am not indignant and unhappy with Supreme Court ministers who should be examples and, at that moment, did business and met, flew together with the biggest head of organized crime in Brazil, it seems to me that it is something similar to the Pope and his advisors doing something related to child abuse. It is something that really disgusts us”, declared Zema in an interview with CNN Brasil.
Estadão requested the Court’s position on Zema’s criticisms and is awaiting feedback. The space remains open.
The statement comes amid criticism of STF ministers for relationships with names such as the owner of Banco Master, Daniel Vorcaro, arrested on charges of fraudulent business at the head of the financial institution, which was liquidated by the Central Bank.
The Court ended up at the center of the scandal with the revelation that Moraes’ wife, lawyer Viviane Barci de Moraes, maintained a million-dollar contract with Banco Master. There were also exchanges of messages between Vorcaro and the minister on the day of the banker’s first arrest, in November last year.
Furthermore, as Estadão showed, a company in which Minister Dias Toffoli is a partner sold its stake in a resort to a fund linked to the bank. After the revelation, Toffoli left the investigation report and, after that, declared himself a suspect to participate in the trials on the case.
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This is not the first time that Zema has commented on the case, comparing the Court to child abuse cases in the Catholic Church. On March 18, Zema stated that the example given by the STF ministers would be as “if we had a pedophile pope” influencing priests.
In this Monday’s interview, Zema criticized STF minister Gilmar Mendes’ request to his colleague Alexandre de Moraes to include him among those investigated in the fake news investigation. The request came after Zema released a video criticizing the Court, including Gilmar and Minister Dias Toffoli, because of the Master case.
Zema’s publication portrayed a conversation between two dolls, characterized by puppet designs, which would represent Dias Toffoli and Gilmar Mendes. In the video, Toffoli calls Gilmar and asks him to annul his company’s breaches of confidentiality, approved by the Senate’s Organized Crime CPI.
With a dialogue marked by irony and caricatures, Gilmar responds that he would cancel the breaches and asks in exchange for a courtesy at the Tayayá resort, in which Toffoli had a shareholding.
“I see it with a certain surprise and also disappointment, but it confirms my belief that today we have ministers who want to silence anyone who disagrees with them”, replied Zema.
The former governor also stated that there was an “untouchables spree” among the authorities. “It is worrying what is happening in Brasília and that it is being completely classified, creating all the difficulties for investigation. This does not rhyme with democracy, this is undemocratic”, he continued.
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In the pre-election campaign, Zema once again defended changes in the Judiciary, including in the Federal Supreme Court, such as setting a minimum age of 60 for ministers to take up a seat in the Court, in addition to the end of monocratic decisions.
“If elected president, I will fight for profound changes in the Supreme Court. I want ministers aged 60 or over, which will automatically limit their time on the court to a maximum of 15 years”, he said. “I want to put an end to monocratic decisions, this today is a slap in the face of Congress. Senators, deputies vote, and the stroke of a minister dismantles that from one moment to the next,” he said.
