Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced Friday, June 30 to eight years of ineligibility 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 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 ahead of the election that it “would not admit criminal extremism” or “fraudulent information, disinformation, with the intention of misleading voters”, TSE chairman Alexandre de Moraes said. 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. To take away my political rights on the charge of abuse of political power is incomprehensible,” the 68-year-old ex-army captain told reporters on Thursday.
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 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 for the military dictatorship (1964-1985) will have hammered it during his campaign.
“Delusional narrative with damaging effects for democracy”
He had stoked the ire of his most radical supporters, who on January 8, days after Lula’s inauguration, stormed and ransacked the seats of executive, legislative and judicial power in Brasilia. “Democracy has won its toughest test in decades,” Justice Minister Flavio Dino said on Friday after the court’s decision. The TSE judges who voted for a conviction harshly criticized the conduct of the ex-president.
His speech sounded like a “delusional narrative with adverse effects on democracy” and it was not an isolated act, but a choice “strategically forged over time. time, for electoral purposes,” Judge André Ramos Tavares thundered Thursday. Conversely, for his colleague Raul Araujo, the behavior of the ex-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 stands out for the time being as a remedy, but Bolsonarism is more entrenched 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.