Lula's ineligibility is based on false grounds.

Brazilian Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) President Luiz Fux, whose term ends on August 14th, is in a hurry to declare Lula ineligible. In his opinion, the TSE needs an urgent response "for the purpose of defining the political landscape." Fux, it seems, has been bitten by the same bug that bit Judge Sergio Moro and believes he has the power to define the political landscape. He forgot that, as president of the Electoral Court, he can define the electoral landscape, but not the political landscape. And he cannot override the laws, much less the deadlines, to prevent Lula's candidacy—a strange way of thanking the man who appointed him to the ministerial position. As part of the plot orchestrated within the Judiciary to eliminate the former president from public life, the minister does not hide his concern about Lula's growing popularity in opinion polls, even while imprisoned, with the possibility of winning the election in the first round. Ultimately, the coup that he, Fux, approved with his silence, like his colleagues on the Supreme Court, was carried out, among other things, precisely to prevent Lula from returning to the Presidential Palace.

After Lava Jato, which became a parallel power in Brazil, public servants in robes apparently began to imagine themselves endowed with superpowers, deciding the fate of people and the country without regard for the Constitution. Contrary to what the Magna Carta dictates, they even make laws, interpreting existing ones according to their interests or political-partisan passions. Minister Carmen Lucia, who is becoming a specialist in catchy phrases, recently said that "politics is a space of passions and Law is the space of reason." Very nice, but far from reality, because in today's Brazil the Judiciary, which operates the Law, has been almost entirely dominated by passions. Is there better proof than the recent episode of the undue interference of Judge Moro, preventing the fulfillment of the decision of Judge Favreto, who ordered Lula's release? Wasn't he perhaps driven by passion? And what about Judge Marilia de Castro Neves, who defended the MBL (Movement of Free Fools) after having its fake profiles removed from Facebook and called on its members to take up arms? "To arms, citizens," she said, paraphrasing the French revolutionaries.

In turn, Judge Sergio Moro indirectly defended the postponement or cancellation of the October elections, declaring that the election would produce "risks of regression" for Lava Jato. He also said that Brazil needs the example of "honest leaders," probably like Aécio Neves, Michel Temer, and João Doria, with whom he posed smiling at events here and in the United States. Moro, whom journalist Reinaldo Azevedo calls a "universal judge," accustomed to not being challenged even by the Supreme Court, already feels authorized to opine even on the holding of elections. After arresting a former president of the Republic, precisely the greatest of them all, and preventing his release by rebelling against an order from his superior, Judge Rogério Favreto – and his insubordination did not even merit a warning from the Supreme Federal Court – he showed that he has carte blanche to continue abusing his authority. In fact, no one dares to contradict him, not even the higher courts or the National Council of Justice.

The fact is that first-instance judge Sergio Moro, who was turned into a celebrity by Globo and became the highest judicial authority in the country, allegedly orchestrated a farce to convict and imprison former president Lula, the only way they found to prevent him from returning to the Palácio do Planalto (Presidential Palace). Jurists worldwide denounced the farce, which is obvious even to laypeople, but the higher courts, even aware of the illegality, confirmed and even increased the sentence, endorsing the imprisonment despite its unconstitutionality. There is no proof of anything, much less a crime. Former heads of state from around the world, as well as US Senator Bernie Sanders and dozens of Democratic congressmen, have already publicly spoken out against the illegality of Lula's imprisonment, but the authorities with the power to overturn his conviction and promote justice, it seems, tremble with fear of a moral lynching by Globo and, therefore, prefer to pretend that Moro acted within the law and simply deny all the former president's appeals. For them, it matters little whether the conviction is unjust and illegal, as long as they remain safe from Globo's fury. In truth, what's missing on the Supreme Court is someone with "that purple stuff," as Collor said, to put an end to this farce. 

No one doubts that Lula's conviction and imprisonment had the sole and exclusive objective of preventing him from returning to the Presidency of the Republic, in order to bring him into line under the Clean Record Law, which provides for the ineligibility of anyone convicted by a panel of judges. Minister Gilmar Mendes even said that he would be released if he withdrew his candidacy. However, the former president has not ceased to have a clean record, because he has done absolutely nothing to tarnish it. There is no accusation that he stole even 10 cents. What, then, was he accused of? Of having benefited from works carried out on an apartment that demonstrably does not belong to him. Therefore, the conviction has no legal basis; it is a farce. His inclusion under the Clean Record Law is thus based on false premises, and there is no reason for him to be ineligible. Those who defend his ineligibility based on this conviction do so because they know that if he runs for office, he will win and they do not want to see him in the Presidency of the Republic again. And among these are some candidates and, above all, men and women in robes. But will half a dozen judges, once again, violate the Constitution – which states that all power emanates from the people – and contradict the will of millions of Brazilians? If this is confirmed, it would be better to change the first statement of the Constitution, which would then read: "All power emanates from Moro."