Gone’s narrow score in the Senate gives ammunition to Messiah’s opponents

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In the narrowest vote for the republic’s attorney general since democracy, Gone won another two-year term. There were 45 votes in favor (just four more than required by the constitution) and 26 votes against. This result was lower than the prediction of rapporteur Senator Omar Aziz (PSD-AM), who supported Gone’s nomination (48 to 52).

Some supporters of Mr. Alcolumbre believe that Mr. Gone’s result is a kind of message from the House of Commons about the difficult path to securing Messias’ approval, at a time when the Planalto Palace is facing difficulties implementing its parliamentary agenda.

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“Messiah is already scheduled to leave office with 26 votes against Mr. Gone. Moreover, Mr. Messiah will be rejected by even more senators, as there is a prevailing feeling in the lower house that the vacant seat should go to Pacheco (Rodrigo Pacheco, former president of the Senate),” said Alcolumbre’s interlocutor, who was interviewed privately on the blog.

Mr. Alcolumbre’s interlocutors, consulted by the column’s team, assessed that the senators were “traumatized” by the last minister appointed by Mr. Lula, STF investigative rapporteur Flavio Dino, who ended the siege over repeated irregularities in the implementation of secret budgets and parliamentary amendments.

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“In reality, we are not rejecting Messias, but rather favoring Pacheco,” the pro-Rulist senator summed up. For this lawmaker, the “bonus vacancy” vacated by Luis Roberto Barroso’s early retirement should be given to Pacheco in deference to the House of Representatives, which tends to be less of a problem for Lula’s government than the House of Representatives.

Those around the Union Attorney General say that Gone’s vote exposed Alcolumbre’s strategy to install Pacheco in the position.

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After Mr. Gone’s close vote, President Lula’s allies sought to minimize the influence of the attorney general’s score on Mr. Messias’s possible nomination.

“There is no connection between one thing and another,” Lula’s interlocutor, who has extensive legal experience, told the blog. “Mr. Gone’s vote is a kind of revenge against the Bolsonarians, who were outraged by the prosecutor’s actions in fighting the coup masterminds in the January 8 investigation.”

In fact, Gone was the person responsible for filing the indictment that led to former President Jair Bolsonaro being sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison for organizing a coup to maintain power.

Mesias, on the other hand, is seen by the Bolsonarist Shock Forces as an “ideological leader of the PT” and someone Lula trusts. He appeared in one of Raba Jato’s most famous moments, when then-president Dilma Rousseff called Lula “Besias” in a conversation with Lula, who had just become minister of the House of Commons.

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Lula’s appointment was Dilma’s last attempt to save the government from the threat of impeachment and rebuild the coalition’s base, but the release of the audio by then-federal judge Sergio Moro led STF Minister Gilmar Méndez to block the appointment of PT members.