The opposition news magazine Veja ran an article last weekend (26 May) in which the federal supreme court (TSF) magistrate Gilmar Mendes alleged that in an office meeting facilitated by the former defence minister Nelson Jobim on 22 April, Lula tried to exert pressure on the judge to delay until after October’s municipal elections the long-awaited TSF trial on the 2005-2006 congressional voting bribery scandal known as the mensalão (roughly, ‘the big allowance’). The TSF is expected to hand down its ruling on the case, after a lengthy seven year investigation, in August. Around 36 former members of congress and former senior officials in Lula’s first government (2003-2006), drawn mostly from the ruling Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) are implicated, including Lula’s former right-hand man and veteran PT baron José Dirceu. The mensalão very nearly toppled the government, though Lula himself emerged unscathed and went on to be re-elected for a second term in October 2006.
Mendes alleged that Lula tried to get his way by offering to shield Mendes from the current parliamentary committee of enquiry (CPI) into the opposition senator Demóstenes Torres and his links to a disgraced businessman known as Carlinhos Cachoeira (‘Charlie Waterfall’, formally Carlos Augusto Ramos). Lula allegedly insinuated that Mendes’ links with Torres might compromise the judge, going so far as to bring up a trip to Berlin that the judge took in Torres’ company.
It is also the case that two of the 11 TSF judges, Carlos Ayres Britto (the actual TSF president) and Cezar Peluso, are both due to retire shortly. Their replacements will be drawn from a list of nominees put forward by President Rousseff. Arguably, that could influence the outcome of the mensalão ruling. The implication is that Lula was thus doubly motivated to seek to delay the case.
Lula immediately issued a statement expressing his “indignation” and vehemently denying the allegations. But Mendes did not stop there. In response to Lula’s denials he had another go, saying that he had emerged “perplexed” from his meeting with the president and accusing Lula of deliberately spreading rumours in an effort to weaken the TSF’s schedule for the mensalão. It is unclear why Mendes waited until now to make his allegations. Jobim has refused to comment.
The story has scandalised Brazil’s chattering classes and puts Rousseff, who has built much of her public popularity on the back of her personal crusade against corruption, in an awkward position. The presidential palace (Planalto) was forced to issue a statement on 30 May denying any risk of an “institutional crisis” between the judiciary and the executive. Notably, Rousseff later appeared at an event honouring Lula for his anti-poverty policies. Britto, who met Rousseff on the same day, also insisted there was no “institutional unease” on the back of the row, stressing that the court would “not lose focus” and would continue its work with “objectivity, impartiality and serenity”. Echoing the Planalto, Justice Minister José Eduardo Cardozo (PT) underlined the “harmonious relations” between the two institutions, while the president of the lower house of congress, Marco Maia (PT), suggested a “hot compress” and “chamomile tea”.
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