Review of a lifetime: lock was pro-Bolsonaro government manipulation, ministers say

The prominent request made by Justice Kassio Nunes Marques, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), which should take the judgment of the entire life review to the physical plenary, was interpreted by other members of the court, in reserve, as an attempt to manipulate the result in favor of the Jair Bolsonaro government (PL).

Therefore, the forecast is that a matter of order will be put to a vote to maintain the vote of Minister Marco Aurélio, in favor of INSS (National Social Security Institute) retirees. This vote was presented before the minister retired from the court in July last year.

With the highlight, Nunes Marques should make the issue leave the virtual plenary and go to the physical plenary, with the possibility of the trial of the action starting over from scratch. In theory, Marco Aurélio’s vote would be discarded and, instead, Minister André Mendonça would vote.

Other ministers have tried to reverse this possibility in order to keep Marco Aurélio’s vote.

Nunes Marques and André Mendonça are the two newest court ministers, appointed by President Bolsonaro.

The impact of the lifetime review for public accounts worries the government. In the action, retirees ask that all their contributions to the INSS, including those made before the creation of the real, in 1994, be considered in the calculation of the average salary to increase the social security benefit.

In the virtual plenary, the judgment had been favorable to retirees. Six of the 11 justices voted in favor of the request for review, indicating the constitutionality of the thesis. Five of them were against the correction, after a government report indicating that there would be expenditures of R$ 46 billion in ten years if the measure was approved.

The highlight of Kassio Nunes Marques was made less than 30 minutes before the trial deadline in the virtual plenary – an environment in which ministers can include their votes when a process is guided.

The trial of the case had begun in June of last year and was interrupted after a request for a view from Minister Alexandre de Moraes. At the time, the score was tied at 5 to 5. On February 25th of this year, voting resumed. In the first few hours, Moraes published his vote and it was already possible to know his decision.

Like Marco Aurélio, rapporteur of the case, Edson Fachin, Cármen Lúcia, Rosa Weber and Ricardo Lewndowski, the minister was also in favor of the review. In his vote, in addition to guaranteeing the right to the best benefit, he defined who could make the request.

In addition to Nunes Marques, Dias Toffoli, Luís Roberto Barroso, Gilmar Mendes and Luiz Fux, president of the court, were against the review.

For specialists in social security, the decision to be taken in the process may correct an error in the 1999 reform, which brought losses to some insured persons already enrolled in Social Security.

According to the new law, those who were already insured with the INSS until November 26, 1999 would have their average salary calculated on the 80% greater contributions made from July 1994. As for workers who started their contributions from November 27, 1999, the permanent rule established that the average salary would be calculated with the highest salaries of the entire contribution period.

In the lifetime review, retirees ask that past contribution amounts, in other currencies, also be considered in calculating the average salary if this results in a more advantageous benefit.