After the , the pre-candidate for President (-RJ) stated this Wednesday (29) that the decision was a “response” to the (Federal Supreme Court), but avoided attributing to himself or his campaign the victory over the veto of the president’s nominee ().
“It’s a set of factors. It’s a response to the government too, which cannot continue to rely on some level of help from the Supreme Court,” said the senator. “I didn’t defeat anyone. Obviously I’m satisfied. It’s not a personal victory for anyone”, he declared.
In a secret vote, 42 senators were against the Union’s attorney general’s approval for the STF and 34 were in favor. 41 favorable senators were needed. At the CCJ (Constitution and Justice Commission), Messias was approved by 16 votes to 11, after around eight hours of hearings, in the tightest score since redemocratization.
For the nomination’s rapporteur, senator Weverton Rocha (-MA), the government was the target of a “huge injustice” in a government defeat imposed after some of the senators chose to send a “message” to Planalto on the eve of the election.
The rapporteur also stated that Lula “knows how certain movements or messages work” and should call the government base to talk. “Now he must go to the ring, for the election, and the opponents will be able to do this confrontation. We are not going to discuss names. What is being discussed is that they imposed a defeat on a person who had nothing to do with the electoral process”, he declared.
“Obviously, it is a defeat for the government. We have to look for all the answers and questions. I haven’t spoken to the other fellow senators yet, but then you have a mixture of senators who are already in the opposition and who had the right to create an expectation that they would vote in secret and, at the time, feel very comfortable and vote for what they had already said, but there are also votes from senators who have this independent relationship in the House and who also needed or want to send a message on the eve of the election”, added Weverton.
The government leader in the Senate, (PT-BA), visited Lula after the result. The parliamentarian was at Palácio da Alvorada earlier, in compliance with an official agenda, and returned to the official residence around 20 minutes after Messias’ rejection.
Shortly after the vote, the minister of the General Secretariat, Guilherme Boulos (PSOL), also spoke out and referred to the rejection of Messias as the result of an alliance between Bolsonarism and political blackmail. “The alliance between Bolsonarism and political blackmail won in the rejection of the name of the STF. The Senate comes out of this regrettable episode,” he wrote on social media.
The president of the CCJ in the House, (-BA), said that he will not look for those who voted against and that he respects the decision of his colleagues. “I don’t even usually ask senators how they vote,” he said in a brief speech to journalists.
The senator (PL-PR) said that the presence of people very close to the Executive affects the “independence” of the STF and the result combats this.
For senator Mara Gabrilli (PSD-SP), Messias’ rejection reflects the fact that parliamentarians are no longer “condescending to this type of thing that is happening in the Supreme Court”.
“We have ministers involved in crimes and we don’t want that. We want a strong Supreme Court, one that Brazil can believe in. This was not an indication to strengthen the Supreme Court and strengthen Brazil. This was an indication to make life easier for the President of the Republic”, he stated.
The senator (PL-SP) said that the rejection is linked to the improvement in Flávio Bolsonaro’s performance as a pre-candidate for the Presidency. “People are already noticing that it’s going to change, right? And you know there are a lot of people who always want to be in the boat that wins,” he said in an interview with Sheet.
