Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) anticipates the madmen: "There is no room for a State of Siege"

By Marcelo Auler, on your blog and for the Journalists for Democracy

Anticipating the reckless actions that the radicals of Jair Bolsonaro's misgovernment might want to take to harden the regime, the president of the Federal Council of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB), Felipe Santa Cruz, refutes in an opinion any possibility of a State of Siege.

The possibility of a hardening of the regime was raised on Friday on some news websites linked to the right.

This would be an attempt by the government to react to the president's transparent inability to coordinate the measures necessary to combat the pandemic spreading around the world.

Outmatched by the facts, he complains about the measures that state governors have been adopting. He argues that tightening the regime would be an attempt to regain control that was effectively taken from him.

The opinion, also signed by Marcus Vinicius Furtado Coêlho of the National Commission for Constitutional Studies, is clear:

"In light of the guiding principles of our constitutional system for crises and the rules on a state of siege provided for in the Constitution, resorting to such an extreme measure in the current context is blatantly unconstitutional and inappropriate."

According to the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB), "there is no scenario in which the State is unable to act within democratic rules that would authorize the suspension of the Constitution itself."

The document warns that the current feelings of panic and fear among the population, produced by the threat of the pandemic, cannot be "exploited to authorize repressive and abusive measures that weaken constitutional rights and guarantees." And it points out what seems obvious and necessary:

"The expected response from the State should not be the expansion of its repressive arsenal, but rather the expansion of its capacity for assistance and social protection of citizens, especially the most vulnerable."