RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil’s right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro reaffirmed this Saturday that next July he would fulfill his promise to appoint a “terribly evangelical” judge to fill one of the eleven seats on the Supreme Court.
“Vacancies for the Federal Supreme Court go through me. The last word is not mine. It is the Senate’s, but you already know that on July 4-5,” I will choose a “terribly evangelical” name, the president told a group of supporters, at the gates of his official residence, in Brasília.
Bolsonaro indicated that he already has a candidate in mind, although he did not reveal his name. Still, according to the Brazilian press, André Mendonça, former Minister of Justice of his government currently Federal Solicitor General.
“As I have already said once, can you imagine that the sessions of the Federal Supreme Court would begin with a prayer by that magistrate?” the head of state said.
“God is essential everywhere, and the Supreme is a place that… I don’t know what the superlative of essential is; does anyone know what the superlative of essential is out there? Essentialísimo? It must be…”, he added.
In power since January 1, 2019, Bolsonaro appointed in October last year the conservative and Catholic judge Kassio Nunes Marques to the place left by the retiring Justice Celso de Mello, of progressive ideas.
The choice of Nunes Marques frustrated far-right sectors and Pentecostal church leaders who were hoping that Bolsonaro’s 2019 promise to appoint a “terribly evangelical” judge would come true then; however it appears he will now deliver.
Next July, Bolsonaro will appoint the replacement for Marco Aurélio Mello, a Supreme Court Justice since June 1990, and who will retire a week before his 75th birthday, the age limit for judges in Brazil.
However, the name chosen by the Brazilian ruler must be approved by the Senate Constitution and Justice Committee, which will interview the candidate and subsequently by the full Senate, by majority vote.