The Federal Supreme Court (STF) decided today (3) to maintain the amount of R$ 4.9 billion for the Special Fund for Campaign Financing (FEFC) in 2022. The fund is intended for public financing of political campaigns and is foreseen in the this year’s federal budget. 
The trial began on February 23 and ended this afternoon. By 9 votes to 2, the majority followed the vote given by Minister Nunes Marques.
In the first session destined to judge the case, the minister kept the value of the fund understanding that there were no irregularities in the processing of the matter and that the Judiciary cannot interfere in budgetary matters of Congress.
case reporter, the Minister André Mendonça voted against the increase, understanding that Congress has not demonstrated the need to withdraw money from other projects to increase the fund. To promote the increase, 20% of the resources were withdrawn from amendments from state and district benches, which are enforceable.
The Electoral Fund is passed on to parties in election years. The transfer was created by Congress in 2017 after the decision of the Supreme Court, which, in 2015, prohibited the financing of campaigns by private companies. In addition to the Electoral Fund, the parties also rely on the Party Fund, which is distributed annually to maintain administrative activities.
Understand
In the lawsuit filed with the Court, Novo questioned the legislative amendment that resulted in the increase in the fund. In 2020, the amount distributed to the parties was BRL 2.1 billion. For the legend, the change should be the exclusive initiative of the Executive. In addition, the caption maintained that the increase had the contours of “immorality”, serving the “personalist interests” of the legislators.
To stop the increase, the acronym asked for an injunction to suspend the article of the Budget Guidelines Law (LDO) that authorized the expansion of the Electoral Fund to up to R$ 5.7 billion.
In sanctioning the LDO, the president Jair Bolsonaro vetoed the increase in the calculation of the Electoral Fundbut the veto was overturned by Congress.
Later, when approving the Budget, the Legislature established the amount of R$ 4.9 billion, which was sanctioned by the President of the Republic.
