Gilmarpalooza will have 5 ministers from the STF, 5 from the government and 2 from the TCU

The “12th Lisbon Forum”, promoted by the Minister of the Federal Supreme Court Gilmar Mendes in Portugal, begins this Wednesday (June 26, 2024). The event is already a tradition and was named “Gilmarpalooza” – a combination of the names of the dean and the Lollapalooza music festival that originated in Chicago (USA) and whose Brazilian version is held every year in São Paulo with a multitude of bands from many places.

Host of the Lisbon event, Gilmar invited all the STF ministers – who were divided:

The initial program included all the STF ministers. The official document with all the forum panels and their participants had been published by Poder360 on June 13th.

After publication, the event organizers contacted this digital newspaper and said that it was still a preliminary list and subject to change. It turns out that the document on letterhead and distributed widely in May and mid-June did not contain any reservations about it being just a list of guests who had not yet been confirmed.

With the publication in Poder360 from the guest list, other authorities who were on the program also started to say that they would not participate in the event in Lisbon. This is the case of the vice-president and minister of Industry, Geraldo Alckmin, the minister of the Civil House, Rui Costa, and the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG) – the name of the latter is still on the event website and on official document with the latest released schedule (PDF – 367 kB).

Below, the updated data from “Gilmarpalooza” – in parentheses, the initial number of authorities from each institution in the initial programming:

• 5 STF ministers (there were 10);
• 12 STJ ministers (still 12);
• 2 TCU ministers (there were 7);
• 1 minister of the TSE (there were 5);
• 5 Lula ministers (there were 14);
• 4 State governors (there were 9);
• 5 senators (there were 8);
• Arthur Lira + 5 deputies (there were 7).

So that the ministers of the Federal Supreme Court could participate and arrive in Lisbon on time, the President of the Court, Roberto Barroso, brought forward the sessions to the last week of June – before the recess. The last meetings for in-person trials of the semester would be on June 26th and 27th. They were moved to the 25th and 26th. The Gilmar forum starts this Wednesday (June 26th) and runs until the 28th. Afterwards, the ministers have vacation throughout the month of July. They only return in August.

WHO PAYS

The STF has repeatedly declared that it does not pay the costs of private travel for ministers, who are free to accept invitations to lectures and seminars. It is not clear this time whether each authority present at the forum will pay their own expenses or whether the organizers will pay for tickets, accommodation and food.

The Court’s responsibility is to pay for the security of ministers, no matter where they are. Even if traveling for a private activity, all 11 magistrates have the right to be accompanied by a police officer.

Barroso had said on June 10 that there is a “lack of understanding” with the travels of ministers and that they live “castellated”. called it “implication” criticism of Toffoli, who went to London to watch the Champions League final and took a security guard – at a cost of R$39,000.

In 2021, the Poder360 showed that the Supreme Court magistrates had 32 security guards in Brasília, 16 in São Paulo, 4 in Rio and 7 in Paraná. The annual cost was R$7.9 million per year. Currently, however, the values ​​are not clear on the STF website and it is not known exactly where each minister was with their security guards.

At the turn of the year from 2023 to 2024, the STF even paid for the security of a judge who went on vacation with his family in Orlando, in the State of Florida, visiting Disney (a famous local amusement park).

In Brazil, ministers of the country’s highest court are not required to annually disclose reports on their private activities, unlike what is done in the United States (understand this text).

US Supreme Court justices have been pressured about their relationship with the private sector. North American newspaper editorials and civil society have been critical of how judges act in private activities. There is a growing feeling that the actions of judges may represent a conflict of interest.

WHO ORGANIZES THE FORUM

Here are the entities involved in the organization:

The theme of the 2024 forum is “Advances and setbacks of globalization and new frontiers: legal, political, economic, socio-environmental and digital transformations”.