Brazil’s Moraes backlash could elect Flávio, in a supreme irony

The campaign against Alexandre de Moraes may end up helping elect Flávio Bolsonaro, the article argues, turning the effort to protect the Supreme Court justice into a “supreme irony” of Brazilian politics.

At the Bolsonaro-aligned September 7 rally on São Paulo’s Avenida Paulista, chants of “Out, Moraes” and support for Justice André Mendonça dominated the event. The crisis inside the Supreme Court became the central theme of Flávio Bolsonaro’s rally, while the article says the political fallout does not benefit President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is seeking reelection.

The text argues that Supreme Court justices, whether trying to protect a colleague or themselves, could hand the election to a group that usually presents itself as the Court’s opponent. It says the argument that Lula could appoint four more political justices to the Supreme Court resonates beyond the core Bolsonaro base.

The article makes severe allegations against Moraes, describing him as a figure associated with the left and accusing him of maintaining a hidden relationship with banker Daniel Vorcaro while overseeing cases involving coup plotters and the January 8, 2023 attacks. It says Moraes received millions of reais through an activity he never adequately justified, though these claims are presented in the article’s own accusatory framing.

It also rejects what it calls false equivalences between Moraes and Mendonça. Supporters of Moraes argue that Mendonça violated formal procedures in seeking to expose him, while the article says any errors by Mendonça should be proven rather than used to obscure what it portrays as public evidence against Moraes. The author concludes that Moraes’s association with the left has made his public political damage a weakness for the Workers’ Party.