The minister, of the (Supreme Federal Court), resorted to a series of press interviews and public comments to refute criticism of the court and defend his positions.
In the space of less than a week, the dean of the court spoke to at least six media outlets — three of them in the space of less than 24 hours, from Wednesday (22) to Thursday (23).
Gilmar answered questions about the court’s image crisis regarding the . At this point, he stated that the involvement of the Supreme Court is marginal and that the central address of the scandal is not Praça dos Três Poderes, but Faria Lima, in reference to the country’s financial center, in São Paulo.
In his statements, the minister pointed out what he claims to be a contradiction in the criticisms, such as the fact that accusations of undue interference in other Powers occur at the same time as there are demands for the STF to act on certain issues.
In interviews, Gilmar defended the maintenance of . It also sought to justify its decision to send the rapporteur, , a crime report against the governor of Minas Gerais (Novo), as per , and its representation to the (Attorney General’s Office) against the rapporteur of the Organized Crime, (MDB-SE), after the proposal to indict members of the Supreme Court.
Gilmar also addressed the proposal of the president of the court, Luiz Edson Fachin, for the , which is the target of resistance from the dean. He also discussed and defended a broader pact between the Powers.
In recent days, Gilmar gave interviews to Jornal da Globo, Jornal da Record, the Metrópoles portal, Band, Correio Braziliense and the Portuguese outlet Expresso. He also made comments in the plenary session this Wednesday (22) of the STF.
“There is evil in trying to transfer the Master case to Praça dos Três Poderes. I think that the Master continues to reside in Faria Lima. There are banks, not just Master, but other banks that sold Master’s credits, that lent credibility, that have to explain. The entire system, not just here or there, the minister used the plane or did this or that. We will investigate, we will examine, but we need to investigate the system as a whole”, he said.
Behind the scenes, Gilmar is part of a wing of the court that would like to see a firmer stance from Fachin in defending the Supreme Court and its members.
This Thursday, in , Gilmar compared the ones by Zema to .
Zema published a video last month satirizing Gilmar and . In the images, Toffoli’s puppet asks Gilmar’s puppet to suspend the breach of his confidentiality, determined by the Organized Crime CPI. The magistrate’s puppet then overturns the decision. In return, he asks for “just a courtesy from your resort that’s paid for, I’m ready to play a little this week”, referring to Tayayá, which had a stake in Toffoli and was bought by a fund linked to , from .
“If we start making jokes about serious things, about institutions, imagine that we start making dolls of Zema as a homosexual. Isn’t that offensive? Or if we show him stealing money from the state, is that not offensive? Is it right to joke about that? Can public men do that? That’s the only question. That’s what needs to be evaluated,” stated the minister.
In response, Zema said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that “it only offends when it has a basis of truth”. “You can do what you want, my conscience is clear”, he wrote, after the federal deputy (PL-MG) questioned whether Gilmar’s speech had been homophobic.
The former governor of Minas Gerais also reacted with a laughing emoji to an image generated by AI (artificial intelligence) that shows a doll of him holding a flag of the LGBTQIA+ community and a sign that says “Zema with pride”.
Regarding the dispute with Zema, Gilmar stated that the politician was only able to govern the state after decisions by the STF to suspend payment of the debt with the Union for 22 months.
Asked whether asking for Zema’s inclusion in the fake news investigation would not inflame tempers further, Gilmar denied this and stated that “all of us who work in public life have to have responsibility” and “we cannot do this kind of joke”.
The minister stated that the STF is internationally praised for its actions in defending democracy and that any self-criticism must be done internally, in an internal and constant process of self-reflection.
In the court plenary, Gilmar criticized editorials from the Sheet saying that, on the one hand, there are demands from the newspaper about the exorbitance of the STF and, on the other, a lack of action on some topics. The minister said that “few people will be able to include in their biography” the fact that several editorials in the press were dedicated to him.
