Fux's appointment to the 2nd panel facilitates the far-right's power base in the Supreme Federal Court

If realized, the transfer of Minister Luiz Fux to join the 2nd Panel of the Supreme Court alongside André Mendonça and Kássio Nunes Marques will enable the formation of a powerful power bloc of the far-right, both anti-corruption and pro-Bolsonaro factions, within the Supreme Court.

With a majority in the Second Chamber, this bloc will be able to form a power center with considerable political strength in internal disputes, even though it only has three of the 11 members of the Court. And it will also have an enormous capacity to create institutional impasses.

The press speculates that Fux asked to leave the First Panel because the "climate became unsustainable" after the vote to acquit Bolsonaro, which condensed the central elements of the extremist narrative against the Supreme Court.

However, it turns out that Fux lost favor with the entire Supreme Court – with the exception, most likely, of André Mendonça and Nunes Marques.

Furthermore, in the Second Chamber, Fux will be a colleague of Gilmar Mendes, his greatest adversary in the Court. In the discussion between the two after Fux requested a review and suspended the proceedings to indict Sérgio Moro for defamation against Gilmar even though he was already losing 4-2, the senior member of the Court said that Fux is a "lamentable figure" who needs "therapy to get rid of Lava Jato".

The hypothesis that Fux is making a strategic move to reshape the power dynamics within the Supreme Court needs to be examined very carefully. The realization of such power by the extremist faction could seriously compromise the Court's future, given the turbulent national political context.

In the Lava Jato investigations and the coup plot, Fux always acted as an organic militant of the far-right, both Lava Jato supporters and Bolsonaro supporters. Fux's organic militancy goes back a long way, and his motto is "leave it to me, I'll take the hit."

This activism was shockingly demonstrated during the coup trial, when he questioned the legitimacy of the institution in a bombastic way: he alleged "absolute incompetence of the Supreme Court" to judge the coup plotters, and defended the "absolute nullity of the process."

Knowing beforehand that his vote would be defeated 4-1, Fux still made a point of politically demarcating his theses, which were more ideological than legal. In the vote delivered over more than 14 hours later, he cemented the lunatic narrative of the far-right that there was no coup and that Bolsonaro and his accomplices in the criminal organization are political prisoners.

Some, in a benign interpretation, believe that Fux was inconsistent in exchanging the punitive approach of Lava Jato for a focus on due process in the trial of the coup. In reality, however, he continues to act consistently as an agent of Lava Jato, Bolsonarism, and anti-PT sentiment, currently instrumentalizing the fascist offensive against democracy and the rule of law.

The move sought by activist Fux to the 2nd Chamber of the Supreme Court is strategic for extremist success. The situation is embarrassing because, according to the rules, there would be no impediments to his request.

The transfer of Justice Cármen Lúcia to the Second Chamber, which would have precedence due to seniority, is the only procedural barrier to neutralize this movement that threatens democracy.