The former governor of Minas Gerais and pre-candidate for the Presidency of the Republic, Romeu Zema (New), stated this Monday (20) that he wants to put an end to monocratic decisions made by ministers of the STF (Supreme Federal Court) if he is elected in October.
“I also want to put an end to monocratic decisions and this today is a slap in the face to Congress. The Supreme Court does need changes,” Zema told CNN Behind the Scenes. The former governor also reinforced that his pre-campaign will be based on combating actions coming from the Supreme Court, under the motto of combating “the untouchables”.
At an event to launch his government plan, Zema declared that his first action as president will be to reformulate the rules for entry into the Supreme Court, the country’s highest court. He proposes that there be a minimum age of 60 for ministers to become eligible for the position, in addition to a 15-year term limit on the court.
To consolidate the proposals to contain the Supreme Court’s actions, Congressional approval would be necessary through PECs (Proposed Amendments to the Constitution). When mentioning the feasibility of the proposals, Zema mentioned the alliances that the Novo party and opposition allies are orchestrating in states targeting the October elections.
“It seems that the president is placing his companions and not placing people to make Brazil better”, stated Zema in reference to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT)’s nominations to make up the court.
The pre-candidate indirectly mentions ministers Cristiano Zanin, Lula’s former lawyer; Flávio Dino, former Minister of Justice in the PT administration; and Jorge Messias, attorney general of the Union appointed by Lula to replace Luís Roberto Barroso.
Zema X Gilmar
The former governor stated that he received with “surprise and disappointment” the news that Minister Gilmar Mendes, of the STF (Supreme Federal Court), asked for his inclusion in the Fake News investigation.
The initiative was motivated after a video shared by the former governor showed two puppets representing ministers Gilmar Mendes and Dias Toffoli discussing about the Master Bank scandal.
“I see it with a certain surprise and also with disappointment, but it confirms my belief that today we have ministers who want to silence anyone who disagrees with them. What I did was use an allegory, puppet, caricature, to show everything rotten that is happening there, which they are keeping every effort to keep under wraps. If they are doing this to me, I think they will need to do this to millions of Brazilians who are having the same gesture in relation to this untouchables spree”, said Zema.
