Miguel Reale Warns Lula: Remove PF Leadership or Risk ‘Liquefaction of the Republic’

Miguel Reale Júnior says Brazil’s Republic is at stake. The former justice minister warned that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva would commit a historic mistake, threatening the country’s institutions, if he did not immediately comply with a Supreme Court order concerning the leadership of the Federal Police.

Justice André Mendonça ordered the removal of Federal Police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues and Intelligence Director Leandro Almada. Reale said the order could be debated, but insisted that a judicial decision must be followed. “I believe that the Republic is effectively being put at stake. There is a dysfunction in the organs of power and in the institutions, but now there has been a liquefaction,” he told Estadão’s Coluna do Estadão.

The former minister criticized advice given to the presidential palace to appeal and resist the ruling. He said it was troubling that Lula intended to appeal while serious facts connected to the president were involved. Reale also argued that Lula, both as president and as a political candidate, should remain outside the judicial dispute.

Lula met with Attorney General Jorge Messias and Justice Minister Wellington César Lima e Silva to discuss the order. The Attorney General’s Office planned to appeal, arguing that Mendonça’s decision infringed on the president’s exclusive authority to appoint and dismiss the Federal Police director-general.

Lula’s campaign legal coordinator, Marco Aurélio Carvalho, advised him to appeal directly to the full Supreme Court and convene the Council of the Republic before removing the police leadership. A hearing in the court’s Second Panel was delayed after Justice Gilmar Mendes requested access to the case files. The removal order remains valid, although a decision by the full panel would carry greater institutional weight.

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I believe that the Republic is effectively being put at stake. There is a dysfunction in the organs of power and in the institutions, but now there has been a liquefaction.