RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The most recent political crisis with Justice Minister Sérgio Moro led Jair Bolsonaro to reinstate Lava Jato’s former judge as his first choice to replace Justice Celso de Mello in the STF (Federal Supreme Court).
The senior-most justice will retire in November, opening space for the president to appoint his first name to the court.
Bolsonaro’s allies see in the move to appoint Moro a step to avoid a scenario in which he could emerge as Bolsonaro’s opponent in the 2022 presidential race.
According to reports, the minister discussed the prospect of joining the STF in talks with the president following the controversy over the reenactment of the Ministry of Public Safety, now part of the Justice portfolio.
The private talks were dubbed by members of Moro’s team as a “DR”, a discussion of the relationship.
The appointment to the Supreme Court would also pave the way for the chief executive to have more say in the Ministry of Justice, something he has been seeking since the beginning of his administration.
One of the sensitive points is the Federal Police. Moro’s departure would enable Bolsonaro to change its command, a desire he had already signaled last year.
In July 2019, in a nod to the evangelical benches, the president had determined that he would choose a jurist with the support of the religious community for the Supreme Court.
“I may appoint two justices to the Supreme Court. One of them will be terribly evangelical,” he said.
Federal Solicitor General André Mendonça, then emerged as the first option, having been named by Bolsonaro himself.
However, behind the scenes, the president is now considering him for the second vacant seat in the STF, that of Minister Marco Aurélio Mello, who is expected to retire in 2021.
This position also includes the Minister of the General Secretariat, Jorge Oliveira, who is gaining prestige with the president.
He even said that he had reserved one of the vacancies for Moro, who left the judiciary to become a government minister.
The president, however, then denied any agreement and said he would only seek someone with the former judge’s profile.
According to advisors, the new change of mind, in favor of a nomination this year, came after the discomfort that arose with the president’s intention to dismantle the Justice portfolio, creating a separate ministry for Public Safety.
Bolsonaro arranged a meeting with state security secretaries without the minister’s presence, who has used safety as one of his management flagships.
At the time, Moro told allies that if the move occurred, he would leave the government. The friction triggered a fierce reaction from the former judge’s supporters, who began to pressure the president on social media.
Bolsonaro retreated and said that, for the time being, the possibility of splitting the portfolio is shelved.
If previously he had intended to hold Moro in the government for the chance to have him as a candidate for vice-president in 2022, now the president considers that the nomination to the STF is a way to prevent him from becoming an opponent in the polls. Simultaneously, it is a strategy to gain greater autonomy over his own government.
With greater popularity than Bolsonaro, as the Datafolha poll in late 2019 pointed out, Moro earned the nickname “irremovable minister” at the Planalto Palace and became a counterweight to the president at the Esplanade.
Then judge of the 13th Criminal Court in Curitiba and in charge of Operation Lava Jato, Moro was invited to the position by Bolsonaro soon after the 2018 election victory. He came to the government with the promise that he would take on a “super-ministry” and the mission to strengthen the fight against corruption and organized crime.
Earlier this week, in an interview with ‘Pânico’, a program on ‘Jovem Pan’ radio station, the minister signaled to the Planalto by referring to a potential appointment to the STF as an ‘interesting prospect’.
“I come from the judiciary, it would be something interesting. But the choice obviously lies with the President of the Republic. He has the option to appoint me, he may appoint other people,” Moro said in the interview. In addition to averting the risk of Moro becoming an opponent in the next presidential dispute, the appointment to the STF keeps the president from conflicting with the minister again, over the position as head of the Federal Police (PF).
The president intends to appoint the current director general of ABIN (Brazilian Intelligence Agency), Alexandre Ramagem, as head of the police force. A PF detective, he served in Bolsonaro’s security detail shortly after the 2018 elections and became his friend.
However, Bolsonaro’s favored name does not enjoy Moro’s support; he advocates Maurício Valeixo’s continuance in the position, or the choice of the general director of the DEPEN (National Penitentiary Department), Fabiano Bordignon.
The president, who intended to make the change as early as February, is expected to hold off until the end of the year, just before choosing the name for the STF.
Moro’s potential appointment to the Supreme Court enjoys the support of the Chamber’s president, Rodrigo Maia, and is backed by the Senate’s pro-Lava Jato wing, where those appointed to the STF are scrutinized.
However, he faces resistance from a group of legislators with ongoing lawsuits.
For them, Moro’s accession to the Supreme Court may shift the balance of power in the court, affecting them. There are also concerns due to leaked conversations between Moro and Lava Jato prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol. The dialogues suggest that Moro, as a judge, has guided the work of the Prosecutor’s Office, which is forbidden by law.
Planalto’s political articulation fears that an appointment of the minister will have an immediate reaction in the legislature, with the threat of blocking the government’s agenda.
Some senators have made proposals to change the criteria for choosing STF members. But Simone Tebet, president of the Constitution and Justice Committee of the Senate, has already signaled that she will not adopt any text that would immediately change the rules of the game.