“Bewildered,” Supreme Court Justice Wants Brazil’s Minister of Education Out

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Federal Supreme Court (STF) Justice Marco Aurélio Mello told Estadão newspaper on Saturday, May 23rd, that he was “bewildered” by President Jair Bolsonaro’s cabinet meeting with the government’s top echelon, marked by swearing, threats, and attacks on institutions.

The Minister of Education, Abraham Weintraub, eventually said that “I would throw all these bums in jail. Starting with the STF.”

“It’s all unfortunate, given the lack of manners. I was bewildered. The people don’t want a circus. They want health, employment, and education,” Marco Aurélio said to the report. “If I were the President, I’d show some moderation. I would urge the Minister of Education to resign. Who knows?”

In lifting confidentiality on the cabinet meeting video, STF justice Celso de Mello, pointed out an apparent “criminal practice” in Weintraub’s behavior, “in an insulting and apparently offensive speech to the moral heritage” concerning the Court’s justices. According to Celso de Mello, Weintraub’s statement stresses “his marked discourtesy and intolerable coarseness” and would represent a potential crime of defamation (such as the crime of insult).

In his decision, Celso de Mello had the STF colleagues notified of Weintraub’s attacks so that the justices could, if they so wished, take the measures they deemed appropriate.

Nonetheless, Marco Aurélio does not intend to take any action against the Minister of Education. “In no way. I’m not a punk. The shoe didn’t even come close enough to fit”, replied Marco Aurélio.

Asked if he perceived a threat to democracy in the cabinet meeting discussions, the justice was adamant: “The answer is an unequivocal no. I do not see it. There is no room for regression”.

One of the last remaining bridges between the Planalto Palace and the STF is the Presiding Justice, Dias Toffoli, who has not yet commented on the matter. Toffoli has tried to preserve an institutional relationship with President Jair Bolsonaro and has used the opening of plenary sessions – which take place on Wednesdays and Thursdays – to send messages and defend the Court from attacks.

Abortion

In another awkward moment during the meeting, the Minister of Women, Family, and Human Rights criticized the STF and said that it is a ‘mockery’ for the Court to include abortion back on the agenda. “Women suffering from the zika virus are having abortions and now also from the coronavirus? Will they want to free abortion for everyone who had coronavirus in Brazil? Are they going to free it in general?”, asked the Minister in the meeting.

The STF ultimately rejected a petition that called for the right to abortion for pregnant women infected with the zika virus, among other issues. In legal jargon, the justices rejected the claim on procedural grounds, without considering the merits of the claim.

Source: Estadão Conteúdo