Demosthenes was what Vega wanted him to be.
The senator from Goiás didn't become a "musketeer of ethics" by vocation; he played the role because it suited a certain press outlet that rose up against a political project with a hypocritical, neo-UDN-leaning discourse built around false moralism.
247 - The big day has arrived. Senator Demóstenes Torres (independent/GO) will finally be impeached this Wednesday. With his downfall, the hypocrisy of Brazilian society will also fall, a society that, in recent years, has been fueled by a political and ideological discourse, of UDN (National Democratic Union) lineage, constructed by false moralists – both in Congress and outside of it.
In this game, a prominent role must be attributed to Veja magazine. In a way, it was the Abril publishing house's publication that shaped the behavior of the senator from Goiás. Demóstenes didn't become a "musketeer of ethics" by vocation. He only played that role because he quickly realized it was what earned him the most mentions in the magazine and a few seconds on the Jornal Nacional (Brazil's main news program).
As the former Secretary of Public Security for Goiás, he could have been a "sheriff," for example, along the lines of "the only good criminal is a dead criminal." He adopted a more civilized role because there was an open avenue.
In July 2007, when Veja magazine was running a campaign against Senator Renan Calheiros – not for ethical reasons, but because the politician from Alagoas led the PMDB faction that would ally with the PT, and not the PSDB, in the following elections – the magazine chose the “musketeers of ethics.” And, of course, Demóstenes was among them.
“The other (musketeer of ethics) is the tireless Senator Demostenes Torres, from the DEM party of Goiás. In the Senate Ethics Council, he is one of the only voices demanding serious investigations and denouncing the maneuvers to acquit without investigation. Demostenes Torres understands what many senators choose not to see: the Senate is becoming demoralized at an overwhelming speed. The remaining hope is that this small council of musketeers of ethics will manage to defeat the trickery of the large Senate Ethics Council,” the magazine article stated.
It is therefore laughable to see Demosthenes protesting before an empty courtroom against the summary judgments of the media. After all, he was always the first to present himself to the firing squad?
More recently, Demóstenes gave a yellow pages interview to Veja magazine. He posed wearing the clothes that Abril had sewn for him and said: "All we have left is the Supreme Court." According to him, even the Senate had begun to react like cattle in the face of successive corruption scandals (denounced, of course, by Veja). "Before the mensalão scandal, there was still a certain reluctance among parliamentarians to open investigations, break confidentiality agreements, and give an explanation to the electorate," said the (still) senator from Goiás.
If that's the case, then this Wednesday the Senate will reconcile with public opinion by impeaching Senator Cachoeira.