Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced on Friday June 30 to eight years of ineligibility for “abuse of political power and improper use of the means of communication”for criticizing the reliability of electronic ballot boxes without proof, a few months before the election won by his left-wing rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
The judgment of the seven magistrates of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) of Brasilia, decided by five votes to two, deprives Mr. Bolsonaro, 68, of a presidential candidacy in 2026 and opens the battle for his succession within the right and extreme right. His defense, however, has indicated that it will appeal.
The court had warned before the election that it “would not condone criminal extremism” neither “fraudulent information, disinformation, with the intention of misleading voters”, launched the president of the TSE, Alexandre de Moraes. The defense of Mr. Bolsonaro, absent once again at the hearing, had announced in advance that it would file an appeal before the Supreme Court in the event of conviction. “I have committed no crime by speaking to ambassadors. Taking away my political rights on the charge of abuse of political power is incomprehensible”had launched Thursday to the press the ex-captain of the army, 68 years old.
It is a speech delivered in July 2022 in front of diplomats at the presidential residence of Alvorada, and broadcast on public TV and social networks, which is at the heart of the trial. Mr. Bolsonaro had said he wanted “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.
“Delusional narrative with harmful effects for democracy”
He had stoked 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. “Democracy has won its toughest test in decades”, reacted on Friday the Minister of Justice, Flavio Dino, after the court’s decision. The TSE judges who voted for a conviction harshly criticized the conduct of the ex-president.
The latter’s 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. Conversely, for his colleague Raul Araujo, the behavior of the former president “was not such as to justify an extreme measure of ineligibility”.
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. The latter also narrowly lost, with only 1.8% difference 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.