SAO PAULO, Brazil – Jair Bolsonaro, the former Brazilian President, suffered a significant blow to his political career after Brazil’s federal electoral court, TSE, barred him from holding public office until 2030.
Bolsonaro was convicted for abuse of power and misuse of media during last year’s elections.
On Friday, June 30, 2023, five out of seven justices on the electoral court voted to convict the 68-year-old far-right nationalist.
The conviction was linked to Bolsonaro’s conduct in July 2022, ahead of the election, when he used a meeting with ambassadors to make unfounded claims about Brazil’s electronic voting system.
This ruling comes as a monumental setback for Bolsonaro, who lost the October 2022 election to leftist rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Many in Brazil have criticized Bolsonaro for fostering a movement to overturn the election results, which resulted in a chaotic invasion of government buildings in Brasilia on January 8 by thousands of his supporters.
Justice Benedito Goncalves, who wrote the majority opinion, stated that Bolsonaro had used his position to “spread doubts and incite conspiracy theories.”
Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is known to be an adversary of Bolsonaro and is currently the head of TSE, supported the majority verdict. He said that Bolsonaro spread a “chain of lies and fraudulent news” during his “radical” speech to the ambassadors.
This decision removes Lula’s main opponent from contention in the 2026 election, and is likely to have a considerable impact on Brazilian politics.
Supporters of Lula da Silva celebrated the ruling.
Justice Minister Flavio Dino tweeted on Friday,June 30, 2023, “Some important messages come from the TSE trial: lying is not a legitimate tool for exercising a public function and politics is not governed by the law of the jungle.
Democracy has overcome its toughest stress test in decades.”
Do julgamento do TSE emanam importantes mensagens:
1. Mentir não é ferramenta legítima para o exercício de uma função pública;
2. Política não é regida pela “lei da selva”, em que o mais forte tudo pode.
A democracia venceu o mais duro teste de estresse das últimas décadas— Flávio Dino 🇧🇷 (@FlavioDino) June 30, 2023
Though Bolsonaro has denied any wrongdoing, and his legal team has vowed to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, sources indicate that the appeal is unlikely to succeed.
Reacting to the verdict, Bolsonaro called the decision a “stab in the back” and stated that he would continue working for the advancement of right-wing politics in Brazil.
In addition to the TSE ruling, Bolsonaro also faces several criminal investigations that could potentially result in imprisonment.
