The Army High Command supported President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) to purchase the fight over the bounty of the Federal Supreme Court and attorney Daniel Silveira (PTB-RJ). Military support caused the STF to back down and decide to give the president a moderate response: he would accept the pardon, but disapprove of Silveira.

There was division in the STF regarding the response to Bolsonaro. The middle ground prevailed, avoiding an immediate response and choosing to recognize Bolsonaro’s constitutional prerogative. One wing wanted to overthrow the bounty as a whole, but the military supported the STF.

This endorsement explains how easily Bolsonaro turned to attack the STF, hinting at a coup and casting doubt on the neatness of the electronic ballot box.

Since re-democratisation, there has not been such a strong military presence on the Brazilian political scene. At the end of the dictatorship, General Leonidas Pires Gonçalves was the main military guarantor of re-democratisation. He was Secretary of the Army (Sarney administration) from 1985 to 1990 and a prominent representative of Tancredo Neves’ victory at the Electoral College.

Since the 2016 impeachment, the military has left the barracks and returned to try to protect civilian life. In 2018, then-military commander Eduardo Villas Boas posted tweets to pressure the STF not to release Lula, who was later imprisoned in Curitiba.

Bolsonaro and the army served in the Executive and received salaries and social security benefits. Over the past three years, frequent notes and coup speeches have been made by active and retired military personnel. The next government will have a hard time putting the genie back in the bottle and re-establishing civilian supremacy over military force.

banana republic

In a democracy, it is an absurd scene for the Minister of Defense to visit the President of the STF. But this happened today in Brazil, where the President of the Supreme Court, Luiz Fux, received Minister Paulo Sergio Nogueira. Typical banana republic scene.

• Watch the full O Radar Das Eleições podcast with Kennedy Alencar, Thais Oyama, Carla Araújo, and Fabíola Cidral: