There’s no way to talk about anything else. Everyone received President Bolsonaro’s decision to grant “grace” to deputy Daniel Silveira with great concern, as it was an unprecedented attitude. Regardless of the lack of technical characterization of the case as grace, according to Dr. Miguel Reale Júnior in an interview with Professor Marco Antonio Villa, what exists is a serious institutional confrontation. An affront and a contempt for justice.

The President even goes so far as to say, in the decree, that the ten-to-one sentence imposed by the Federal Supreme Court caused a “national commotion”, which is “a profound injustice that unsettles the nation”. He understands himself and his group as a nation. On the contrary, the nation was calm at the moment when those who try to make the exercise of the judiciary impossible, those who coerce witnesses and judicial authorities during the exercise of justice, are punished. Tranquility stems from condemnation, in addition to stability between the powers. Institutional crises do not generate tranquility, they generate political insecurity and fear that the conflict will reach greater proportions.

Daniel Silveira, by word and deed, tried to make the exercise of the judiciary unfeasible, and in the course of the process he coerced the authorities and witnesses. He did all this by taking advantage of his status as a deputy. The moment he was condemned, granting him grace makes democracy very insecure. It represents an act of merely political interest, to create a victim for the population that is intended to mobilize around the election. Deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of the President, even compared him to Jesus Christ. This is what moves the country, not condemnation: an individual who preaches violence, institutional disobedience, hatred, being compared to Jesus.

In addition to all this, it is clear that the President has no limits, which creates a lot of insecurity. We can even imagine that if he loses the election, he will contest the results of the polls, or even the polls themselves. This presidential pardon shows precisely a rigging for that.

According to the jurist Dr. Miguel Reale Júnior, the fact of being granted grace is even illegal, since the grace can only be granted after the conviction has passed and judged. As there would still be an appeal, the process was not finalized. In addition, grace, however, only grants pardon for non-fulfillment of the sentence – created for absolutely exceptional cases –, and does not, however, remove the political effects of condemnation. One of these effects is the loss of political rights and, consequently, the loss of mandate. He cannot even be a candidate.

One of the hypotheses of impeachment, according to the Constitution, is the affront to the exercise of justice, when the President acts against the free exercise of the judiciary. There is no free exercise of the judiciary when it is possible to annul, the following day, a conviction of a deputy who has affronted the freedom of the judiciary itself. See that he is not being convicted of a crime of opinion, or for defamation, as he tried to impute bolsonarismo. He tried to make it unfeasible through serious threats to justice, in the sense that, if the judiciary did its job, it could be closed. The reign of arbitrariness, autocracy, anarcho-capitalism is established.

The reaction of businessmen was also not good. The President’s attitude shows institutional instability in Brazil, and countries with institutional instability do not work regularly with the stock exchanges. They begin to fall, with less investment, and whoever is investing there loses money. A president who does not follow the laws makes room for not knowing what can happen. For those who are foreign investors and are not involved in the daily life of national politics, this means that Brazil is similar to countries like Bolivia and Venezuela. You may think that, in a little while, this President will not accept to leave, who knows, maybe he will take a coup. And the stock market, which is completely speculation, loses money. However, Bolsonaro is an artificial coup, a project. He has been winning for 30 years in democracy.

Investors prefer a regular democracy, experience shows. And we citizens even more so. I return, again, to the question: what will be the answer of Justice?