SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s Senate on Wednesday approved the nomination of Justice Minister Flavio Dino to the country’s Supreme Court.
Dino, a leftist former state governor who cracked down on supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro after they ransacked government buildings last January, approved his entry into the 11-judge court by a vote of 47 to 31.
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The vote, which comes after a full day of speeches by senators in a contentious hearing, underscored that the opposition led by right-wing Bolsonaro is strong enough to block the calendar of his leftist successor, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Dino will replace former Chief Justice Rosa Maria Weber, who stepped down in September after turning 75, the age limit for the nation’s Supreme Court justices.
Dino, who served as a federal judge for 12 years before beginning his political career, governed Brazil’s northeastern state of Maranhao from 2015 to 2023. His decisions to impose curfews and movement restrictions during the pandemic have made him an antagonist of Bolsonaro. who has opposed strict COVID-19 measures.
“He is one of the few Brazilians who has held positions in the executive, legislative and judicial branches,” Senator Weverton Rocha said before the vote. “It is clear that he fits in the Supreme Court. He knows how to behave in all the positions he holds.
Senator Magno Malta, an evangelical leader and staunch Bolsonaro supporter, voted against Dino’s nomination to the country’s Communist Party and as a former member of the Brazilian Socialist Party.
“He has never hidden he is a communist, a arxist,” Malta said. “We are taking a leftist activist to the Supreme Court. His team is the left, it is against everything I believe in.”
Dino is the second Supreme Court justice appointed by Lula, who is in his third term as president, who also was in the top post in 2003-2010. Cristiano Zanin, once Lula’s lawyer, was approved to join the court in July on a 58-18 vote in the Senate.
Feminist activists have criticized Lula for not appointing a woman to bring Weber up to date on the High Court. Its female member is now Judge Carmen Lucia.
Senators also appointed Paulo Gonet as Brazil’s attorney general by a vote of 65 to 11. He will update Augusto Aras, appointed through Bolsonaro.
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