The Supreme Court shows Bolsonaro that he is not Louis XIV.

By Alex Solnik, from Journalists for Democracy

The setback he suffered today in the Supreme Court, with Minister Alexandre de Moraes' decision to suspend the appointment of his namesake Alexandre Ramagem as director-general of the Federal Police, was a hard blow to the absolutist plan that the still-president is trying to implement in the country and which he summarized a few days ago in an emblematic and mendacious phrase:

"I am the constitution."

Emblematic because it immediately evokes Louis XIV and his "l'état c'est moi"; deceitful in its attempt to persuade that it respects what it does not in fact respect.

He alone failed to notice that Moro's statements upon leaving the ministry, and his own in response as head of the entire ministry, revealed the true, spurious motives behind the dismissal of the previous director, Maurício Valeixo. And despite the suspicions raised by everyone who isn't fanatical, the still-president doubled down, as he always does, appointing to the position a former subordinate – the former head of security for the then-candidate during the campaign, after the stabbing – and a notorious friend of his son Carlos, who is under investigation by the Federal Police.

Did the outgoing president think that no one would realize that the new director would be his puppet, and that through him he would have access to confidential investigations, could attack adversaries, and protect friends and family?

Or is it that, protected by the quartet of generals who run the government while it spreads the coronavirus, he thinks that, in addition to being the constitution, he is also the state?

Be that as it may, now he's going to have to rack his brains to find someone who isn't so obviously co-optable for the Federal Police, and his hate cabinet will point its cannons at the Supreme Court and especially at Alexandre de Moraes.

He can appeal, the Attorney General's Office can argue that nothing prevents a President of the Republic from appointing the head of the Federal Police, the matter will then go to the full court, but it won't pass; the current president doesn't have the votes to win in the Supreme Court plenary.

Only in November, when Celso de Mello retires, will the current president be able to appoint a loyal ally to replace him, and another in September 2021, with the departure of Marco Aurélio Melo.

Until then, he is likely to lose all cases in the Supreme Federal Court. 

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