Cornered, Gilmar suggests imprisonment of defendants in AP 470.

247 - Until Tuesday afternoon, Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes was politically isolated. To favor the opposition's political project in the 2014 elections, he granted an injunction preventing the passage of a law in the National Congress, approved in the Chamber of Deputies, concerning party loyalty. He was reprimanded by the President of the Senate, Renan Calheiros (PMDB/AL), and even by the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Henrique Eduardo Alves (PMDB/RN), who is not exactly known for his firmness. Even so, Alves informed the Supreme Court today that the law approved in the Chamber followed all procedural and constitutional precepts.

Gilmar is therefore fully aware that the crisis he created, which has purely electoral motivations, has no connection whatsoever with the trial of Criminal Action 470, the so-called mensalão (monthly allowance scandal). But as he desperately needs a justification for the insane attitude he took, he sought support in the trial. And today, rescued from isolation by a group of senators led by Pedro Taques (PDT/MT), he attributed the institutional crisis that he himself – and no one else – created to an alleged revenge by the defendants convicted in AP 470.

To the senators, Gilmar stated: "We are convinced that we must close the Mensalão chapter as quickly as possible." Even if everyone is imprisoned without the right to appeal, the Judiciary's encroachment on the Legislative branch will continue. And the crisis will not end until the full Supreme Court has the good sense to correct the mistake of one minister.

Read below an account of the meeting published in the Radar column: 

Institutional crisis

Well-tuned speech

Gilmar Mendes He joined the chorus of senators who point to the processing of PECs 33 and 37 as retaliation by Congress against the Supreme Court and the Public Prosecutor's Office. Of course, it is known that there is no shortage of parliamentarians resentful of the conviction of those involved in the Mensalão scandal.

PEC 33 subjects the Court's decisions to the Legislative branch, while the other restricts the investigative capacity of the Public Prosecutor's Office.

In a meeting with ten parliamentarians this afternoon, Gilmar Mendes made it clear that the institutional crisis between the Judiciary and the Legislature has shown the ministers the urgent need to conclude the final stage of the trial.

Mendes summarized:

We are convinced that we must close the Mensalão chapter as quickly as possible.