Toffoli goes out of his way to please Bolsonaro and attends the inauguration of four ministers.
It seems there are no limits to the Supreme Court president Dias Toffoli's efforts to get as close as possible to Jair Bolsonaro's far-right government; protocol did not require his presence, but he insisted on attending the handover ceremony for four ministers.
247 - Toffoli had already shown signs of collaboration with the right wing long before the presidential election, when, as a member of the Supreme Court and later as its president, he acted against the PT (Workers' Party) and former president Lula.
In a physical effort to be in so many locations on the Esplanade of Ministries, he paid homage to the ministers Sérgio Moro, of Justice; Paulo Guedes, of Economy; General Fernando Azevedo, of Defense; and Ernesto Araújo, of Foreign Affairs.
A report by journalist Carolina Brígido, in this Thursday's edition (3) of the newspaper O Globo, portrays Toffoli's commitment to being on good terms with Bolsonaro's team and bringing the Executive and Judiciary branches as close as possible.
This move is nothing new, the report shows: in September, when he assumed the presidency of the Supreme Federal Court and saw Bolsonaro's rise in the polls, Toffoli approached General Villas-Bôas, commander of the Armed Forces, to ask for the nomination of a general to be his special advisor. The chosen one was Azevedo.
Azevedo is close to Bolsonaro. Both graduated from the Agulhas Negras Military Academy in the 1970s. Azevedo's presence on the Supreme Court served as a symbolic gesture indicating that Toffoli was willing to engage in dialogue with the military. It worked. In November, Bolsonaro chose Toffoli's general to head the Ministry of Defense. After the departure of a member of his team, the minister chose another general as an advisor: Ajax Porto Pinheiro.
Toffoli's presence at Azevedo's inauguration shows that he wants to maintain dialogue with the Armed Forces. The same can be said regarding the inauguration of Moro, the former judge who led Lava Jato in the first instance in Curitiba. Many times, Toffoli voted in the Supreme Court for the release, or even the transfer to house arrest, of defendants convicted by Moro. In the court, the former judge is viewed with reservation by ministers of the so-called "guarantist" wing. Now, in the name of institutional relations, Toffoli will need to strengthen his relationship with the head of the Justice Ministry.