MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil: Bolsonaro hints appointing STF judges involved “gifts”

Bolsonaro is trying to have his former Justice Minister André Mendonça appointed to the STF.

Video footage portraying Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro asking how much it would cost to appoint a Supreme Federal Court (STF) judge has gone viral Thursday.

Bolsonaro thus showed he believed there was some corruption involved in the selection of magistrates, who must be proposed by the head of state and then be approved by Congress. “Pay attention: How much do you think a position for the Supreme Court is worth ...?,” asked the Brazilian president, who stopped when he realized that his own social media team was broadcasting it live.

The Brazilian leader is to depart for Italy Friday to take part in the G20 Summit in Rome.

During a pause of an interview with far-right radio station Jovem Pan, Bolsonaro spoke with his advisers about corruption and asked if anyone knew how much the appointment of a judge of the Federal Supreme Court would cost.

Bolsonaro is trying to have his former Justice Minister André Mendonça appointed to the STF. Mendonça is a Presbyterian pastor who, if ratified, would become Bolsonaro's second appointment to the STF. In 2020, Kassio Nunes Marques was cleared by the Senate to replace former judge Celso de Mello.

“Is that recording?,” Bolsonaro giggled as he changed the subject to say that if Fernando Haddad, of the Workers' Party (PT), had won the presidential elections in 2018, the country would be under confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bolsonaro also explained “off the record” that a form of corruption was to ask someone for a pair of shoes and that “green bills appear” in the box instead of footwear.

During the TV interview for the Bolsonarist outlet, the head of state was asked about the diversions of public funds for which Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, eldest son of the president, is being investigated. “I am the president and I answer for my actions,” said Bolsonaro, who angrily got up and left the interview which was being broadcast virtually.

On his first day in Rome, Bolsonaro plans only to meet with his Italian counterpart Sergio Mattarella. Unlike other G20 leaders, who after attending the Rome meeting will head to the Scottish city of Glasgow for the climate COP 26 event, Bolsonaro will stay another two days in Italy. On Monday he will travel to the city of Anguillara Veneta, in Padua, from where the first Bolsonaro who emigrated to Brazil left at the end of the 19th century and where he will receive the title of “honorary citizen.”