'Caso Mensalão': condenações mostram que País quer responsabilização de políticos, escreve FT

O jornal Financial Times desta quinta-feira afirma que os brasileiros estão "comemorando" a condenação de figuras políticas de grande expressão no caso do Mensalão, e que muitos estão cobrando maior responsabilização ("accountability") dos seus líderes.
"Os brasileiros estavam comemorando o que muitos vêem como um ponto de virada no estado de direito na segunda maior economia de mercado emergente do mundo quando a Suprema Corte deu o primeiro veredicto de culpado contra um grupo de políticos de alto escalão", escreve o correspondente do jornal em São Paulo, Joe Leahy. "O forte posicionamento tomado pelos juízes no caso conhecido como 'Mensalão' acontece após demandas por maior responsabilização e melhores serviços públicos. Isso acontece depois de décadas de crescimento econômico e a emergência de uma nova classe média baixa que, cada vez mais, espera melhores padrões de educação, segurança e infraestrutura."
O jornal também destaca que um aspecto importante do julgamento do Mensalão é que o STF está "fortemente ocupado" com juízes indicados durante a gestão do PT, o que demonstraria a independência da Corte ao condenar petistas.

O Financial Times diz ainda que "muitas das instituições e mecanismos de controle previstos na constituição, que foram elaborados depois da ditadura, estão amadurecendo agora, desde a Polícia Federal ao Ministério Público, passando pela independência do Judiciário."
Analistas políticos brasileiros ouvidos pelo Financial Times dizem que o desafio do Brasil agora, no combate à corrupção, é acabar com desvios em campanhas eleitorais.
Na terça-feira, a maioria dos juízes condenou integrantes do alto escalão do governo de Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva - como José Dirceu e José Genoino - por envolvimento no escândalo de compra de apoio político no Congresso. O STF só definirá as penas dos culpados no fim de todo o processo do Mensalão. Eles poderão pegar de dois a 12 anos de prisão.

via BBC

Artigo na íntegra:

Brazilians celebrate corruption verdict
by Joe Leahy in São Paulo
in Financial Times, October 10, 2012 8:29 pm

Brazilians were celebrating what many saw as a turning point in the rule of law in the world’s second largest emerging-market economy as the Supreme Court delivered its first-ever guilty verdict against a group of senior politicians.
The Supreme Court justices on Wednesday were concluding a session in which they found three former senior party cadres of ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva guilty of bribing opposition politicians in Congress to win their support for the then government.
“It’s amazing,” said Carlos Pereira, political analyst at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Rio de Janeiro. “It’s a credible sign that Brazil’s on the right track for good governance.”
The strong stand taken by the judges in the case, known as Mensalão, or big monthly allowance, follows rising demands for greater accountability and better public services.
This follows a decade of economic growth and the emergence of a new lower-middle class that increasingly expects better standards of education, security and infrastructure.
The case dates from the first two years of Mr Lula da Silva’s term in 2003 and 2004, when José Dirceu, his then chief of staff and a co-founder of his Workers’ Party (PT), PT president José Genoino and party treasurer Delúbio Soares, organised the vote-buying scheme.
The three men face between two and 12 years in jail after their conviction by an overwhelming majority of the 11 justices of the Supreme Court.
Also convicted in the case so far are two dozen others, including 10 legislators as well as business partners in the scheme, ranging from bankers to advertising executives.
Dirceu was removed from his position when the scheme came to light in 2005. He said on his blog that while he accepted the court’s decision, the matter had been a case of trial by media and there was no proof of his guilt.
However, Mr Pereira said the case marked a turning point in the building of institutions in a country that only returned to democracy from military dictatorship during the mid-1980s.
Many of the institutions and checks and balances envisioned in the constitution that were put into place after the dictatorship were now maturing, ranging from the federal police to the public ministry, the national watchdog, as well as the independence of the judiciary.
Of these, the court was the most important in framing the limits of political largesse in a country in which analysts say until now only one federal politician had been convicted of corruption.
Importantly, the case was decided by a court that was heavily stacked with PT-government appointees.
“Until recently, the dominant belief was only poor people and black people would go to jail in Brazil, that was the dominant view,” Mr Pereira said. “This is the breakthrough that will put Brazil on a new path.”
The Mensalão was unique because the Workers’ Party had tried to change the way support was built in Congress. Traditionally, presidents have had to build coalitions, but the PT had attempted to buy support, said Luciano Dias, of consultancy CAC Consultorio.
The challenge now was to clean up corruption in campaign finance, he said.
“Brazil is a vast democracy – you see the number of voters. How can you mobilise these people? You have to have money. Half of the corruption scandals in Brazil are related to illegal campaign finance,” he said.

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• Top Lula aides convicted of corruption
• Carnival adds colour to Brazil scandal
• Scandal derails veteran politician’s career
• Brazil’s future path