Flávio Dino with Lula da Silva after his appointment as Minister of the Supreme Court this Monday in Brasilia. Ricardo Stuckert (Presidency)
A new appointment, immortalized with a photo in which other white men surround the president. No woman, no black man. Brazil must wait for a black woman to join the Supreme Court. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, 78, has finally picked the daisy and appointed this Monday his Minister of Justice Flávio Dino, 55, to fill the vacancy left a few months ago due to the retirement of a judge With this appointment ignored the president and leader of the Brazilian left an intensive campaign by the black and feminist movements that have pressured him to vote for a woman, preferably a black woman.
Dino, who was a federal judge before joining the Justice Department and a two-term governor of Maranhão, a state in traditional Labor voting territory, must be confirmed by the Senate. Lula also announced the name of the next attorney general, Paulo Gonet, 62, before he leaves for a trip to Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, where he will attend the climate summit.
Brazil’s Supreme Court has eleven judges who have become political stars in recent years thanks to the fact that their deliberations are broadcast live on television. The court also played a crucial role in then-President Jair Bolsonaro’s attacks on democracy and is currently holding trials against those charged in the attempted coup last January. Here they joke that the eleven robes are almost as popular as the football team’s eleven.
Paulo Gonet and Flávio Dino pose with Lula on November 27th. Ricardo Stuckert (Presidency)
With this new composition, the court will only consist of one woman and ten men. And there wasn’t a single black person among the eleven. That is, a composition that bears little resemblance to Brazilian society.
For Brazilian activists fighting against racism and gender inequality, this is a new disappointment on Lula’s part. Although she began her term in a cabinet that included more women, blacks and mestizos than in any previous cabinet (in a government with 38 portfolios), two ministers were dismissed in order to gain new allies and clear the way for legislative projects in the government pave congress. Two women came out, two men came in. Meanwhile, the president has chosen another white man to fill the first Supreme Court vacancy of this term.
The activists of the feminist and black movements accuse the experienced and charismatic politician of entering the Planalto Palace at the beginning of his third term in office, surrounded by a handful of citizens who reflect Brazil’s social diversity and, when the time comes, positions of power To distribute, he resorts to it and again to white men. The argument Lula usually makes is that he needs someone with maximum trust. That’s why the campaign for Supreme Court included an invitation to have coffee with several black candidates with solid judicial careers.
The appointment of Minister Dino to the Supreme Court and Paulo Gonet as the next Attorney General could further raise the political profile of the Supreme Court. The first had a huge role as head of the Justice and Public Security Department on the day thousands of Bolsonaro supporters attacked the headquarters of the three powers in Brasilia to oust Lula from power. And the second so far has been the deputy attorney general for electoral justice, who disqualified Bolsonaro for abuse of power, barring him from voting until 2030.
The court’s current members include a former Labor lawyer and another former justice minister. The next Supreme Court vacancy will occur in 2028. For the previous position, Lula chose another man, his personal lawyer, Cristiano Zanin, 48, the man who, together with his wife, also a lawyer, managed to get him out of prison and annul the sentences that weighed on him. Both Zanin and Dino have two decades ahead of them on the Supreme Court.
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