How Deltan Dallanol is trying to keep Lava Jato’s legacy in politics

As one of the “heroes” of Lava-Jato, Deltan Dallanol led a protest march in 2016 that delivered 2 million signatures to Congress in support of the project Ten measures against corruption. He has since seen the tainted package, he has been criticized for the behavior of the task force, some of his work has been annulled by the courts, he has been sentenced to pay damages and has been the subject of an investigation. However, the ex-prosecutor intends, together with the ex-judge, to bring to life the legacy of the anti-corruption operation Sergio Morowho is a bit confused in his electoral debut — traded his presidential candidacy for Podemos to migrate to União Brasil, where he may have to settle for a federal candidacy for São Paulo.

Deltan, linked to Podemos since December 2021, is less wobbly than Moro’s steps. But the slogan is the same, focused on the fight against corruption, almost a minor topic in the current elections compared to 2018, when Lava-Zhato was at its peak. With the accelerating pace of the campaign, he traveled around Brazil introducing the 200+ project, which aims to convince civil society to elect deputies and senators committed to three points: the fight against corruption (with the end of the privileged forum and imprisonment in the second example); reduction or liquidation of the electoral fund; and political preparation for the discussion of issues relevant to the country.

Deltan’s intense preaching is aimed at helping Podemos form a large pew – today it has eight deputies. The prospects in Paraná are good: Polls show that the former prosecutor has the potential to be elected and take one or two more names with him to the Chamber. “He is being hunted by conspirators who want to punish him, but he will get a positive reaction in the polls with a spectacular vote,” said Senator Alvaro Diaz, president of Podemos in the state. This, by the way, is the discourse adopted by the party: there is a conjuncture of “conspiracy and persecution” against those who fight against corruption.

Like Moreau, Deltan is suffering from the upheavals in justice associated with Lava Jato. The most recent setback was TCU’s decision to refund the 2.8 million reais spent on daily rates for the operation. In this case, Deltan sees the political decision of Minister Rapporteur Bruno Dantas for contradicting the technical opinion of the Court’s External Review Secretariat. “I’m going to take this to court,” he says. Two months earlier, he suffered another major blow when the STJ sentenced him to pay R$75,000 to the former president. Lula because of the famous PowerPoint. The failure, however, served as a measure of public support for the former attorney: he managed to raise around R$500,000 through spontaneous donations.

In the pre-campaign, Deltan faces attacks from all directions. In addition to PT’s votes, the former attorney is targeted by other party names such as former Gov. Beto Richa (PSDB), another strong federal MP name who is trying to rebuild politically four years after Love-Jato’s arrest. Deltan also faces “intimate enemies” such as Adriel Gael, executive director of the National Union of Civil Servants of the Union State Ministry, who has just released a book behind the scenes of an operation he worked for between 2014 and 2016. Lula’s photo, which is already being asked tone to the critical narrative against the former prosecutor. Gael reveals that he saw the political ambitions of Deltan and Moro from the very beginning of the operation, and that it was organized to satisfy these desires.

Often criticized for his sometimes exaggerated work (does anyone remember PowerPoint?), Deltan goes on to say that he never had a desire to enter politics and that he has now taken on that role as a new front in the fight against corruption. To give meaning to the 200+ project, he focused on meetings with professional associations, trade associations, village unions and higher education institutions. To avoid clashes, he does not talk about the presidential election – despite the fact that Lula is a preferred target in the networks, Bolsonaro’s deflation of anti-corruption measures has already become the subject of much criticism.

Whether or not Deltan’s sermon will resonate is unknown, but his oratory is seen as a strong point of the candidacy, a difference built over years of lecturing at the Baptist church. He favors live interviews with radio stations and sometimes adopts an outraged, sometimes comical tone on social media. It has professional support for social media, press and campaign coordination. The right hand on trips is Fabio Oliveira, former leader of the Mude anti-corruption movement, a state candidate for Podemos. Other affiliates, such as federal cops, are putting the legend into the state to establish themselves as the “Lava-Jato Party”. Accompanied by these names, supported by an evangelical base and members of the MPF and the judiciary, Deltan follows his path to Congress, trying to show the disaffected that the flame of the fight against corruption has not been extinguished.

“I did everything within the law”
Faced with the setbacks suffered by Lava-Jato, former lawyer Deltan Dallanol says there was always something else that could have been done, but he is proud to have been a part of the operation.

With so many failures at Lava Jato, would you have done differently?I am proud to have been a part of this great team of state agents who, with the help of the population, have achieved three unprecedented things in Brazil: they put powerful corrupt people behind bars, managed to recover 15 billion reais, and exposed the monster of Brazilian corruption. You can always do something different. But I look back and see that I did nothing within the law so that we could speak out against the corrupt political system that still rules our country.

Do you think you can stand out in politics?I understand that one person will not change anything, it will be a voice preaching in the wilderness. That’s why I’ve been very active in supporting the 200+ project. No matter who the people want for president, if there is no good Congress, it will be hostage to business relations, physiology, give and take.

As an elected politician, you will be entitled to privileged jurisdiction. What do you think about this?For me it’s bad. I don’t want to be judged by the STF, I don’t want to be judged by Gilmar Mendez, I don’t want to be judged by Ricardo Lewandowski, Diaz Toffoli. I want to be judged by a technical referee of the first instance.

Published in VEJA June 8, 2022, No. 2792.