How to deal with political parties that act against the Constitution: from a reticent silence to a straightforward enforcement of the Constitution art. 17, caput.

Abstract

The article sides with the many works dedicated to understand and propose remedies to the democratic erosion experienced in Brazil since July 2013, focusing mainly on the contribution of political parties to this process. In democracy, the freedom of the party to choose its flags and develop its projects to dispute the electorate and to represent these interests is justified by
its function of intermediating the relationship between society and government. However, it is not uncommon for parties, taking advantage of this freedom, to defend democratic rupture. Faced with this problem, the work is concerned with demonstrating that art. 17, caput, of the Constitution authorizes the deregistration of political parties that act against constitution, what is done in the light of constituent discussions and the wording of constitutional and legal norms that govern political parties, reaching the conclusion that, considering the insufficiency of other mechanisms, the deregistration of parties with an anti-democrat ideology and action is authorized by the Superior Electoral Court, subject to due process of law.