Workers’ Cause Party calls Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes a dictator

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL –  The highly controversial Justice Alexandre de Moraes usually goes after (conservative) Bolsonaristas, but this time, he has targeted a grouping from the extreme left.

The Marxist-Trotskyist PCO (Workers’ Cause Party) called Federal Supreme Court (STF) Justice Alexandre de Moraes a “dictator” and a “skinhead in a toga.”

Some perceive the judge in charge of the fake news investigation as someone who might abuse his power to protect his interests.

The PCO has spoken out against the election of Moraes to the presidency of the TSE (Superior Electoral Court), which makes him responsible for the 2022 elections.

“The dictator, who declared that he will annul the candidacy registration of those who spread “fake news,” will be the person with the greatest power to intervene in the 2022 electoral process; a new fraud is being prepared,” wrote the party on Twitter on Wednesday, June 15.

Judge De Moraes dismisses any dissenting opinion or viewpoint of his as “fake news” or “disinformation.” He then censors them on the grounds that he wants to “protect democracy” – a contradiction, because in democracies, dissenting opinions and criticism of institutions are allowed.

In a new post on Thursday, June 16, the party declared: “The TSE is only an arm of the dictatorial STF, which exists to impose the will of the bourgeoisie in elections, as is clear in the current case of Alexandre de Moraes. The skinhead in a toga now presides over the court and is the protagonist of the new fraud in elections.”

The PCO said on its website that TSE and STF (Supreme Court) should be dissolved. The party argued that Moraes’ “dictatorial action” caused an opportunity to arise to debate the existence of the two courts.

On June 2, the Justice ordered the opening of an investigation against the PCO, ordered the blocking of the party’s profiles on social networks, and ordered its president, Rui Costa Pimenta, to give a statement to the Federal Police (PF) within five days.

The investigation was opened after a publication on Twitter on June 1, in which the party called Moraes, as in this week’s post, a “skinhead in a toga”. The party also said the magistrate is on a “rampage for dictatorship.”

At the time, the PCO referred to the magistrate’s participation in a TSE event on May 31. The minister said that politicians who share false information might have their registration revoked for the October elections. According to Moraes, the Justice will be prepared to fight the “digital militias”.

And the question remains: who decides what is “fake news”? Could this term be misused to censor and eliminate dissenters?

ABI CONDEMNS

The ABI (Brazilian Press Association) condemned the attacks of the PCO on the STF, at the same time that it positioned itself against the decision of Moraes to block the profiles of the political party on social networks. According to the association, the measure represents “prior censorship of freedom of expression.”

In a statement, the association said it has a “permanent commitment to the defense of the democratic rule of law and democratic institutions” and, “therefore, disagrees with the opinion expressed by the Workers’ Cause Party,” which defended the dissolution of the Supreme Court.

The ABI declared that blocking the PCO’s social network accounts “curtails freedom of expression, guaranteed by the 1988 Constitution.”