The investigating judge votes in favor of disqualifying Bolsonaro and excluding him from the next elections

The former president of Brazil is closer to being removed from the next electoral contests after the investigating judge of the most mature case against him voted this Tuesday night, in the Superior Electoral Court, in favor of his being disqualified for eight years, until 2030. Judge Benedito Goncalves considers it proven that the far-right politician used his position as head of state to, in a meeting with foreign ambassadors accredited to the Brazilian authorities, “degrade the electoral environment” three months before the elections, ” incite a state of collective paranoia” and fabricate “conspiracy theories” with “false information and egregious lies”. The judge has come to accuse the previous president of “not discreet flirting with the coup.”

This is the most advanced of the 16 investigations opened against Bolsonaro, who is also in the crosshairs of justice for the coup assault in Brasilia, the jewels given away by Saudi Arabia that tried to stay, the pandemic or his treatment of indigenous people.

After the investigative judge’s vote, the second session of the trial against Bolsonaro has concluded. It will be resumed this Thursday, as six other TSE magistrates still have to vote. The rapporteur’s vote indicates a path that the rest of the members of the court could follow. Even Bolsonaro acknowledges that the chances of being convicted are high. In any case, he trusts that one of the judges will ask for a break to study the case in more detail —something frequent— and thus buy time.

After the electoral defeat, Bolsonaro’s supporters camped in front of barracks throughout Brazil to demand that the military step forward and prevent the inauguration of leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. A week after he assumed power on New Year’s Day, thousands of Bolsonaristas staged a violent assault on the headquarters of the three powers in Brasilia. Bolsonaro is being investigated for encouraging that coup attempt.

If Bolsonaro is convicted in this case and disqualified until 2030, he can file an appeal before the Supreme Court, which in any case is presided over by a judge who is also a member of the Electoral Tribunal that is now judging him and who has launched a crusade in defense of democracy. to neutralize the authoritarian tics of the extreme right.

If Bolsonaro were to be definitively removed from the elections, the name that appears most strongly as a possible successor at the head of the Brazilian right is that of the governor of São Paulo, Tarcisio de Freitas, a retired military man who has made a career in the administration. It also sounds like the former first lady Michele Bolsonaro, a woman with good oratory and evangelical, or it could be one of the three political sons of the patriarch Bolsonaro although they have never been as attractive to the electorate as their father.

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