Supreme Court Rejects Lawsuit Against Eduardo Bolsonaro’s U.S. Embassy Nomination

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Justice Ricardo Lewandowski, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), rejected on Wednesday, August 14th, a lawsuit filed by the Citizenship Party against the appointment of federal deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PSL-SP), son of president Jair Bolsonaro, to the embassy of Brazil in the United States.

For the party, Eduardo’s appointment to the U.S. post would be “flagrant nepotism,” since the legislator would not be “qualified” to the post.

In his decision, Lewandowski pointed out technical-legal issues and did not analyze the merits of the appointment of Eduardo Bolsonaro — i.e., whether the case fits as nepotism or not.

For the minister, the Citizenship Party has no legitimacy to contest the appointment of the president’s son via a writ of mandamus (a type of procedural class), since the party ended up postulating, in its own name, the defense of “diffuse” interests of the Brazilian population.

“The plenary of the Federal Supreme Court has already pronounced itself in the sense of denying universal legitimacy to the political party to file a collective security mandate for the jurisdictional protection of rights or diffuse interests of civil society,” the minister noted.

The deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro defended on Wednesday the synergy between diplomacy and national defense when speaking at the opening of the Seminar “Challenges to National Defense and the role of the Armed Forces”, held in the House.

“Diplomacy and defense are sides of the same coin. Instruments for exercising national sovereignty and ensuring autonomy in our external relations,” said the parliamentarian to an audience composed mostly of deputies and military.

Also on Wednesday, the spokesman for the Presidency of the Republic, Otávio Rêgo Barros, said that president Jair Bolsonaro is very sure of the appointment of Eduardo Bolsonaro for the office of ambassador.

According to him, the legal analysis on the appointment is being carried out in the “palace” and, “as soon as it is finalized”, made the formal appointment.

Asked if the government would be holding Eduardo’s appointment until the conclusion of the vote on the reform of the Senate Welfare, the spokesman said that the president made no comment on this, but said that “it does not seem that there will be any kind of restraint in the appointment of Eduardo Bolsonaro,” who is, according to Rêgo Barros, fully qualified for the post.