Brazil’s electoral court on Friday reached the majority needed to convict former President Jair Bolsonaro of “abuse of power”, which will make him ineligible for eight years for engaging in disinformation before his defeat in 2022.
• Read also: Brazil: the future of ex-president Bolsonaro suspended to a decision of the judges
Four judges of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) of Brasilia voted for a conviction of the far-right leader for “abuse of power”, and one against. Two judges still have to vote, who have the option of requesting a postponement to further examine the case, which would delay the end of the trial and the handing down of the sentence.
The former head of state (2019-2022) is being prosecuted for “abuse of political power and improper use of the means of communication” for having criticized, without proof, the reliability of electronic ballot boxes, a few months before the election won by his left-wing rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
The vote of Judge Carmen Lucia, at the opening of the fourth hearing of this trial on Friday, was decisive: four out of seven judges have now voted to put Mr. Bolsonaro out of play, a thunderclap in Brazilian politics.
AFP
Mr. Bolsonaro was once again absent from this crucial meeting for his future. He was in Belo Horizonte (southeast) for lunch with members of his Liberal Party.
“I have committed no crime by meeting with ambassadors. To take away my political rights under the accusation of abuse of political power is incomprehensible,” the 68-year-old ex-army captain told reporters on Thursday.
AFP
It is indeed a speech delivered in July 2022 in front of diplomats at the presidential residence of Alvorada, and broadcast on public television and social networks, which is at the heart of the trial. He said he wanted to “correct flaws” in electronic voting with the “participation of the armed forces”.
This speech on a supposed vulnerability, conducive to fraud, of the electoral system, this nostalgic of the military dictatorship (1964-1985) will have hammered it during his campaign.
He will have stirred up the anger of his most radical supporters who, on January 8, a few days after Lula’s inauguration, stormed and ransacked the seats of the executive, legislative and judicial powers in Brasilia.
AFP
TSE judges who have already voted for a conviction have harshly criticized the conduct of the ex-president.
His speech sounded like a “delusional narrative with harmful effects for democracy” and it was not an isolated act, but a choice “strategically forged over time, for electoral purposes,” thundered Judge André Ramos Tavares on Thursday.
AFP
Conversely, for his colleague Raul Araujo, his behavior “was not such as to justify an extreme measure of ineligibility”.
AFP
The defense has announced that it will appeal to the Supreme Court if convicted.
The question of the leadership of the Bolsonaro camp already arises. No figure is needed for the time being as a remedy, but Bolsonarism is more rooted than ever.
Right-wing and far-right parties are even stronger in Parliament than they were under Jair Bolsonaro and the latter narrowly lost, with only a 1.8% gap in the second round against Lula, back after two terms (2003-2010).
Mr. Bolsonaro has other legal trials ahead of him. In addition to fifteen proceedings before the electoral court, the former leader is targeted by the Supreme Court in five cases, in particular for his alleged role as the inspiration for the attacks of January 8. He faces jail.