By Ludmila Cassio
Brazilian Senator Rogério Marinho, of the Liberal Party (PL), said that if he is elected president of the Senate in 2027, he will process the impeachment requests filed against justices of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Brazil's highest court. That includes requests against Justice Alexandre de Moraes. He made the statement in an interview with CNN Brasil, and it is already echoing behind the scenes in Brasília.
"I will not stay silent": what Marinho said
The message was blunt. "I will comply with the Constitution in a very clear way. Unlike those who came before me, I will not shirk my duty," Marinho said. The original Portuguese phrase, "eu não vou me omitir," literally means "I will not omit myself," in the sense of not failing to act.
Marinho is a pre-candidate for the Senate presidency. The vote takes place only in 2027, so the picture may change between now and then. Still, his pledge anticipates a debate that promises to heat up: who will hold the seat that decides whether the requests against STF justices move forward or stay stalled.
More than 100 requests stalled in the Senate
The senator pointed out that more than one hundred requests to open proceedings for "crime of responsibility", the offense that can lead to the removal of a justice, remain unexamined. According to the report, the requests keep piling up without a response while public pressure from part of society keeps growing.
In Marinho's words, the problem is not only the content of the requests but the silence in the face of them. By saying he will not stay silent, he makes clear that he intends to treat the matter as a duty of the office, not as an option of convenience.
Marinho also separated the issue from the race for control of the Senate. According to him, the impeachment requests will not be used as a bargaining chip in negotiations to win the presidency of the chamber. He sees reviewing them as an institutional question, unconnected to the political maneuvering around his own election. That caveat matters: it distances the promise from the idea of a backroom deal and presents it as a commitment of conduct that voters and fellow senators can hold him to.
Why it matters
In Brazil, the Senate is the body with the constitutional power to try Supreme Court justices for crimes of responsibility. According to the source, the Senate president holds the seat that decides whether such requests advance or remain parked. Marinho's party, the PL, is the party of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who governed Brazil from 2019 to 2022.
Marinho also voiced concern about Brazilians' loss of trust in the judiciary, which he called one of the fundamental pillars of democracy. In his view, society expects public institutions to send the message that no one is above the law, regardless of social status or ideology. "The law has to be a shield. And the Constitution, in particular, which protects all citizens," he said.
The pledge is now on the record, and both opponents and allies are expected to follow each step.
VDD Analysis
Complying with the Constitution should not be a campaign promise but an obligation of whoever presides over the Senate. The fact that more than one hundred requests remain unexamined shows why part of the electorate sees a system without brakes, and Marinho's statement answers that anxiety by arguing that no one is above the law. Overseeing the branches of government is a legitimate function of the Legislature, and only in practice will we know whether the commitment holds.
