Bolsonaro benefited from the release of the video, says professor from UFSCar.

Sputnik - The video of the ministerial meeting that was released from secrecy this Friday (22) makes Jair Bolsonaro "come out much stronger" and "connects the government to its popular base," an anthropologist told Sputnik Brasil.

The meeting on April 22 was cited by former Justice Minister Sergio Moro as proof of President Jair Bolsonaro's interference in the Federal Police (PF), the reason the former judge gave for resigning from the government. 

Following Moro's accusations, the Attorney General's Office requested on April 24th that the Supreme Federal Court (STF) open an investigation into the alleged interference. Three days later, Justice Celso de Mello, who had released the video of the meeting from secrecy, authorized the inquiry. 

According to Piero Leirner, a professor at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), the "result" of the campaign was "the biggest piece of government propaganda ever made" in the current administration. 

'A well-thought-out case'

The anthropologist casts doubt on what led Bolsonaro to release the video and believes that everything may have been done "deliberately." According to him, "it's best not to underestimate the government's ability to move two steps ahead." 

"There was no reluctance to hand over the video. At the time, General Augusto Heleno could have said: 'I'm not handing it over. What are you going to do?'. There was already a precedent. Renan Calheiros refused to receive notification from the Supreme Court of his removal from the presidency of the Senate. What happened? Nothing. So all he had to do was dig his heels in and nothing would have happened," Leirner told Sputnik Brasil. 

The researcher refers to an event that occurred on December 5, 2016, when Calheiros refused to receive a court officer who brought notification from Minister Marco Aurélio Mello ordering his removal from the presidency of the Senate. Two days later, a majority of the Supreme Court justices overturned Marco Aurélio's injunction, and Calheiros remained in charge of the Senate. 

According to the anthropologist, the video's content does not demonstrate any attempt by the president to interfere in ongoing investigations. Furthermore, he states that there is nothing in the legislation that prohibits the president from appointing the head of the Federal Police. 

'Video is an advertising piece'

"The problematic interference would be in the investigation. Bolsonaro has the legal right to make appointments and dismissals in the executive branch, in positions that are appointed, but not in those filled through competitive examinations. There is nothing in the legislation determining the autonomy of the Federal Police. This is an absurdity created by Lava Jato. But that's not what matters. What matters is that the video is a piece of publicity. Anyone can see that, and Celso de Mello certainly saw it. Releasing the video shows that this process is very suspicious, it shows that this conflict has the appearance of a rigged game," stated Piero Leirner. 

Carlos Sávio Gomes Teixeira, professor at the Department of Political Science at the Federal Fluminense University (UFF), agrees that the video released this Friday (22) "does not contain any evidence against Bolsonaro", in the sense of confirming a possible interference by the president in the Federal Police.

Also speaking to Sputnik Brazil, the academic opines that the images in question reveal only "what analysts already knew regarding the unrefined intellectual spirit of the government members," but, at the same time, "their release now was politically excellent for the government, as it diverts attention from the problems stemming from the coronavirus crisis, which, for the first time, threatened to undermine the government."

'Video shows much more than Moro suggested'

Contrary to the opinion of the two experts, Eugênia Rosa Cabral, professor and current coordinator of the Postgraduate Program in Political Science at the Federal University of Pará (UFPA), states that "the video shows much more than Moro suggested."

"It shows what the government thinks and does in various fields: environmental, political, cultural, and social. I am perplexed, indignant, and ashamed! Whether everything shown in the video is enough for the institutions to take action, I don't know. We don't know for sure!", she told Sputnik Brazil.

Formally, according to Cabral, the content of that ministerial meeting a month ago "has everything needed to overthrow the current president," but it is not yet possible to know "if the political actors are interested in taking the process forward and ending this (mis)government."