Supreme Court closed for review.
"By avoiding the debate about final judgment, Dias Toffoli takes a new step towards diminishing the highest court of Justice in the country, whose fundamental mission is to ensure compliance with the Constitution," writes Paulo Moreira Leite, of Journalists for Democracy; "Three years after the Supreme Court bowed before the release of an illegal recording of a dialogue between Dilma and Lula, the decision of the current president of the Supreme Court confirms the prophecy of a classic poem of resistance to Nazism, which demonstrates that a chain of successive omissions ends up transforming the democratic regime into a graveyard of democracy."
By Paulo Moreira Leite, from Journalists for Democracy - By postponing the debate on final judgment, which was on the agenda for Wednesday the 10th, to an uncertain and unknown date, the president of the Supreme Federal Court, Dias Toffoli, revealed a reality that had remained hidden. Instead of assuming its primary function of ensuring compliance with the Constitution, our Supreme Court preferred to hide rather than assume its responsibilities to the country.
The explanations for such a disastrous decision await an investigation that will likely be undertaken by historians. The rumors involve facts so serious and unacceptable that it is not advisable to speculate about them.
At a moment of such gravity, it is enough to recall that the debate involves a crucial decision for the Democratic Rule of Law, with an immediate impact on whether or not Lula remains in prison - and all its consequences for Brazil and Brazilians.
(Learn about and support the project) Journalists for Democracy)
But it is possible to trace the path that led the Supreme Federal Court (STF) to a situation of predicted and planned bankruptcy.
The fateful date was March 16, 2016, when Sergio Moro released an illegal recording of a conversation between President Dilma Rousseff and Lula, inviting her to take a position in her cabinet. Instead of holding a first-instance magistrate accountable, who had no right to publicly present a recorded dialogue without the indispensable authorization – from the Supreme Court itself – the Supreme Court bowed to Lava Jato. Lula was prevented from taking office and, a month later, Eduardo Cunha's Chamber of Deputies initiated the coup that removed Dilma and paved the way for successive attacks on democracy that have placed Brazil in the situation it finds itself in today.
On Thursday, another stage of a prophecy announced in Germany in 1933 was fulfilled, when a Lutheran pastor, Martin Noemeller, coined a poem that would travel the world and, translated into several languages and adapted to various geopolitical circumstances, became a classic about the omission that is at the root of several defeats of democracy. Written in the year that marked the rise of Adolf Hitler, the poem is short and clear:
"One day they came and took away my neighbor who was Jewish. Since I am not Jewish, I wasn't bothered."
The next day, they came and took them.
my other neighbor who was a communist.
Since I'm not a communist, it didn't bother me.
On the third day they came
And they took my Catholic neighbor.
Since I'm not Catholic, it didn't bother me.
On the fourth day, they came and took me away;
There was no one left to complain..."
Any questions?
(Learn about and support the project) Journalists for Democracy)
* This is an opinion article, the responsibility of the author, and does not reflect the opinion of Brasil 247.