The Banco Master case brought a significant novelty to the Brazilian political and institutional scenario: the Federal Supreme Court (STF) no longer acts as an external arbiter of crises, but is, this time, at the center of them. The assessment is by Creomar de Souza, a specialist in political analysis, at the same time WW.
According to Creomar, in previous crises — arising from mismanagement or illegality — the STF (Supreme Federal Court) used to be called only as a final instance, remaining distant from the initial articulations. “Over the last few years, these crises were outside the STF and it became a final arbiter”, stated the expert. In the Master case, however, the Supreme Court began to actively participate in the decisions and negotiations involving the episode.
Normalizing bad decisions as institutional risk
For Creomar, the biggest political risk in the short term is not the existence of the crisis itself, but the naturalization of inadequate actions and decisions that originate it or that seek to resolve it in an insufficient way. “The risk lies in the normalization and naturalization of every type of bad action or decision that causes a crisis,” he said.
Creomar also highlighted that the Brazilian political environment is “populated by political actors who are effectively dealing with the negative effects of aspects of poor management or poorly carried out institutional dialogue”. For the expert, this stance contributes to distorting the perception of the severity of the crisis for both voters and ordinary citizens.
Complexity and high risk on the horizon
The expert also pointed out that the developments in the case involve multiple dimensions: budgetary impacts, effects on the political composition of Congress, internal conflicts and the conditions of the (Attorney General’s Office) to assess the progress of the investigations. “We have a very large complexity and a priced risk that is quite high looking at the future in the short term”, concluded Creomar de Souza.
