In an interview with Portal Metrópoles, Fábio Medina Osório considers there to be no risk of institutional rupture in Brazil
Interview in which the author assesses that there is no risk of institutional rupture in Brazil, Portal Metrópoles, 2020.
Interview text
Translated from the original.
BRUNA AIDAR
bruna.aidar@metropoles.com
15/06/2020 5:02
“I think that before Jair Bolsonaro, the Executive Branch had been diminished in relation to the Judiciary; his criticisms are a reaction to judicial activism.” That is the assessment of Fábio Medina Osório, former Attorney General of Brazil (AGU) under the Michel Temer (MDB) administration, who, in an interview with Metrópoles, said he sees no risk of institutional rupture in Brazil and praised the president’s conduct toward the Judiciary.
Bolsonaro, his sons, aides and supporters constantly criticize the Court and its 11 justices. The president has taken part in several rallies calling for the closure of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) and for military intervention. He became embroiled in controversy by comparing the Court to a “hyena” trying to surround him, in a video published last year. Osório maintains, however, that these episodes involve reactions to the Judiciary’s encroachments on the Executive’s prerogatives.
“There is no risk of institutional rupture, nor do I think it came from Bolsonaro. These are interpretations that try to distort his speech. What I see him arguing is that arbitrary decisions by another branch of government can generate institutional ruptures. It is a criticism of activism, because in recent years the Judiciary has imposed itself and started to govern the country. Just look at the high salaries.”
The former Attorney General further argues that there are “mistaken interpretations” of the president’s statements. He insists that the head of the federal Executive would merely be reacting to attempts at interference and, in his criticism of the Supreme Court, would be expressing popular dissatisfaction with the Judiciary. “Perhaps Bolsonaro is voicing the desire for more control and transparency over the State. We have the constitutional principle prohibiting arbitrariness; no power may act arbitrarily against its citizens, and this applies to everyone. People do not accept anyone more entrenched in a fortress.”
Osório avoided criticizing even the most “radical” positions of Bolsonarism, such as that of former federal deputy Roberto Jefferson (PTB), who preaches that the Armed Forces remove the Supreme Court justices: “It is part of democracy to have various types of speech, even exotic ones, just as there are in the opposition”. And he adds, trying to explain: “Sometimes, when some people talk about removing, for example, it is through the proper channels”.
“What we have to do is increase the controls over the branches of government. Just as the impeachment of the president has become normalized, why is the Senate’s power to oversee ministers not amplified? The controls should be more intensified; we only have a more exacerbated control over the President of the Republic.”
As an example of interference by other branches in the functions of the Executive, he cites the decision of STF Justice Alexandre de Moraes to bar the director of the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (Abin), Alexandre Ramagem, from taking over as Director-General of the Federal Police (PF), for alleged political interference, since he is close to the Bolsonaro family.
“There was no reason to suspend the inauguration, because he was not involved in any attempt at interference, and closeness (to the Bolsonaro family) is not grounds for suspending the inauguration of a director-general. It was a mistake by the STF.”
The Ramagem case is one of those recalled by the president’s critics when they accuse him of trying to interfere in organs of the State, as stated by former Justice Minister Sergio Moro on leaving the government. At the time, Moro said he had been pressured to dismiss Maurício Valeixo from the leadership of the Federal Police and that Bolsonaro had demanded that he hand over “reports” on the corporation’s investigations: according to the former judge, the president wanted “someone he trusted” in the post.
When he was dismissed from the AGU, Osório himself accused the Temer government of trying to “stifle Operation Car Wash” and of removing him from the post because he had been handling cases involving politicians and companies accused of corruption. For him, however, the current situation has no parallel with the former government, and it is unfounded to say that the president wants to know about the investigations in order to protect his family or allies.
“I think the accusations (of interference) are unfounded. There is no corruption complaint against any member of the government. That is a very big difference from the Temer government. As for the complaint by Justice Sergio Moro, he himself did not attribute any crime to the president and, afterwards, the evidence showed that Bolsonaro did not try to interfere in any case,” he said critically.