President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defended, this Thursday (5), that there be a mandate for ministers of the Federal Supreme Court (STF). For Lula, however, this decision is up to the National Congress and should not be related to the tension between the Powers with the trial of the coup attempt on January 8, 2023.
In an interview with Portal UOL, the president recalled that the issue of the mandate for the Supreme Court was in the PT’s campaign program in 2018, when Fernando Haddad ran for President. “I think everything needs to change and nothing is free from change,” said Lula.
“I think it’s not fair for a person to enter at 35 years old and stay until 75 years old, that is, it’s not fair. It’s a long time, so I think they can have a mandate. But this is a process to be discussed with the National Congress that has nothing to do with what happened on January 8th or with the January 8th trial”, added the president.
For Lula, the aforementioned trial was “the greatest lesson that institutions have respectability in this country”. “Not even the pressure from the president [dos Estados Unidos, Donald] Trump caused the Supreme Court to change its position. This is an immeasurable value for a democratic country”, he stated.
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Still in the interview, he defended criteria for choosing new ministers, based on “solid legal knowledge and compliance with the Constitution”.
The statement comes at a time when members of the Court are publicly criticized for their conduct of investigations involving fraud at Banco Master.
This week, in a speech at the opening of the 2026 Judicial Year, the president of the STF, Edson Fachin, stated as priority the preservation of the integrity of the court and announced the creation of a Code of Ethics for magistrates, with the report of minister Cármen Lúcia.
The STF is made up of 11 ministers who are appointed by the President of the Republic and must undergo a hearing in the Senate’s Constitution and Justice Committee and have their name approved in a vote in the House’s plenary.
Today, there is a vacancy in the seat then occupied by minister Luís Roberto Barroso, who announced his early retirement and left the court in October last year.
To his place, President Lula indicated the attorney general of the Union, Jorge Messias. The Senate awaits the sending of the presidential message that formalizes the nomination to schedule the hearing.
