Lula da Silva to appoint 2 Justices to Brazilian Supreme Court STF and strengthen its left leaning position

The president-elect, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT, left), will be entitled to appoint two Justices to the STF (Federal Supreme Court). The vacancies will be opened with the retirement of the Court’s president, Rosa Weber, and Ricardo Lewandowski.

Thus, the STF will remain indefinitely in the hands of the left, in great contrast to the USA where it is in the hands of the right.

While the (leftist) Biden government has no ally in the judiciary, Lula da Silva knows, as he has for the last four years, that the STF will support his proposals each time.

Both will retire in 2023. Lewandowski on May 11 and Weber on Oct. 2. On these dates they will turn 75, the mandatory retirement age for Supreme Court justices.

President Jair Bolsonaro (PL, right) and Lula faced each other in the second round of the dispute for the Presidential Palace on Sunday (Oct. 30, 2022).

In the current composition of the STF, 3 ministers were nominated by Lula: Dias Toffoli (2009), Cármen Lúcia, and Ricardo Lewandowski (2006). Bolsonaro, on the other hand, nominated Nunes Marques (2020) and André Mendonça (2021).

After Lewandowski and Weber, the next minister to retire is Luiz Fux, in 2028. Former president Dilma Rousseff (PT) appointed him to the Court in 2011.

Marques and Mendonça are the youngest ministers of the current composition of the STF. As a result, they are also the ones who will stay the longest of the 11 that make up the Court today. Both will retire in 2047.