Brazil’s Supreme Court has in recent weeks insisted to the still president, Jair Bolsonaro, and his political partners to cease spreading doubts about the proper functioning of the last elections and to spur protests that since the triumph of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva have been occupying roads and barracks entrances, clamoring for a military intervention.
One of the greatest fears within the Supreme Court and in Lula’s team that is managing the transition is that if the anti-democratic demonstrations persist, even with greater belligerence after the inauguration, the new government will have to demobilize the protests, with all that this would entail.
The main bearer of these warnings is usually Judge Gilmar Mendes, dean of the Supreme Court, who met with Bolsonaro last week, as well as with some of his political associates, according to the newspaper ‘O Globo’.
That meeting took place on the eve of the publication of the controversial audit with which the Liberal Party (PL) tried to question the cleanliness of Lula’s victory. Mendes asked Bolsonaro to exercise his constitutional responsibility and spend his last days in office working to facilitate the new transfer of power instead of continuing with his theories of electoral fraud.
Mendes related to the rest of the judges that Bolsonaro had no intention of either debating his party’s audit or encouraging his supporters to leave the streets. Two conditions that have been demanded of him in order to count on the good will of the Supreme Court now that he will face several judicial processes.
The fear of Bolsonaro and his sons of being imprisoned once his mandate ends due to the cases he has open in the Supreme Court in the macro operation on fake news and the so-called digital militias is well known, which is why his allies have told the court that he feels persecuted.
For now, the sector of the PL that has encouraged Bolsonaro to dedicate his last days in the Planalto Palace to promote his political achievements and strengthen his image as leader of the opposition has assured that it will try to mediate so that he will put down this passive aggressive attitude that has made him seclude himself since he was defeated.
