Collor Government: outstanding characteristics and facts

O Collor government it was the first government directly elected by the Brazilian population after the Military Dictatorship. Fernando Collor de Mello assumed the presidency after victory in 1989 election, when he defeated, in the second round, the PT candidate, Lula. Collor's victory is considered a case of political marketing success.

His government ended up being quite agitated, since the president did not seem very willing to govern respecting the dictates of Brazilian democracy. It attacked opponents, turned against Congress and failed in the economy by carrying out one of the most traumatic measures in Brazilian memory: the confiscation of savings. It ended up being overturned by a process of impeachment completed in 1992.

Fernando Collor was the winner of the 1989 presidential election and ruled Brazil from 1990 to 1992, when he was impeached.[1]

1989 election

To become president of Brazil, Fernando Collor had to go through one of the most disputed elections in Brazilian history: a 1989 election

. It was the first direct presidential election since the one held in 1960. It was a single election, that is, the population voted solely to elect president.

This election was structured during the government of José Sarney and it was target of much controversy. The president wanted to exercise his six-year term, and Brazilian parliamentarians wanted his term to be as short as possible. It ended up being decided for a term of five years and the election was scheduled for 1989.

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Because it was the first presidential election after the end of the Military dictatorship, many politicians and parties decided to test the reach of their popularity, launching their candidacies for the presidential race. The result it was twenty-two applications in this electoral dispute. There was even the first woman to run for president: Lívia Lêdo Pio de Abreu, who ran for the position of the Nationalist Party (PN), a party without expression at the time and which ceased to exist some time later.

The candidates who ran in the 1989 presidential election were:

• Affonso Camargo Neto (PTB)
• Afif Domingos (PL)
• Antônio dos Santos Pedreira (PPB)
• Armando Correa (PMB)
• Aureliano Chaves (PFL)
• Celso Brant (PMN)
• Eneas Carneiro (Prone)
• Eudes Oliveira Mattar (PLP)
• Fernando Collor (PRN)
• Fernando Gabeira (PV)
• Leonel Brizola (PDT)
• Lívia Mario Pio (PN)
• Lula (PT)
• Manoel de Oliveira Horta (PDC do B)
• Mario Covas (PSDB)
• Brown (PSP)
• Paulo Gontijo (PP)
• Paulo Maluf (PDS)
• Roberto Freire (PCB)
• Ronaldo Caiado (PSD)
• Ulysses Guimarães (PMDB)
• Zamir José Teixeira (PCN)

The top names in the race for the presidency were LeonelBrizola, UlyssesGuimaraes, mariopits, aurelianKeys, Paulmaluf and squid. Fernando Collor, in turn, was a candidate considered a outsider, that is, he was not a traditional politician.

Collor was a politician from Alagoas who, through the influence of his family, reached the position of governor of alagoas. The clearest sign that Collor was not a favorite in the race is that his candidacy came from the unimpressive PRN.

You two favorite candidatesonly in the dispute were Leonel Brizola and Ulysses Guimarães, very traditional, influential politicians who had enormous importance in the redemocratization of Brazil. Leonel Brizola's campaign stagnated, and Ulysses Guimarães's was a huge failure. What was seen in the first round was the growth of Lula and Fernando Collor all over the country.

Lula's growth, by the way, ended up happening in places where Brizola did not do well, and this ended up being fundamental for the result of the first round. Politicians used, in this election, mainly the electoral campaign of the free time available on television. The candidates with more time on TV were Aureliano Chaves and Ulysses Guimarães.

During the campaign that lasted for months in 1989, the result of the first round was as follows:

1. Fernando Collor (PRN) – 30.47%
2. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT) – 17.18%
3. Leonel Brizola (PDT) - 16.51%
4. Mario Covas (PSDB) – 11.51%
5. Paulo Maluf (PDS) – 8.85%
6. Afif Domingos (PL) – 4.83%
7. Ulysses Guimarães (PMDB) – 4.73%

As determined by the Constitution, if the first place winner does not reach more than 50% of the votes, the first two places will proceed to a second round dispute. Thus, Collor and Lula disputed the presidency of Brazil in the second round. With a difference of less than 500,000 votes, Lula overcame Brizola and continued as the center-left candidate, while Collor represented the center-right.

The big debate between Collor and Lula it focused on the question of economics. Brazil had spent the entire 1980s suffering from high inflation, and José Sarney (then president) proved incompetent to deal with the problem. The proposals that Lula and Collor had for Brazil were opposites and reflected the ideological differences between the two candidates.

Color introduced himself as a young and modern politician that came to encourage individual development, defending the reduction of the Brazilian State. squid, in turn, sought to undo the radical image and defended a development with a slight distribution of income, in order to build a more equal society.

THE reaction to stop the advance of Lula's candidacy was significant. A number of parties, such as the PDS, PFL and part of the PMDB, allied with Collor. It is also important to consider that Lula's ideological association in that context was harmful to him, precisely because it was the time when the socialist bloc was crumbling in Eastern Europe.

Collor defended the modernization of the state through liberal measures and intensified his attacks against Lula and Sarney. Experts consider that the actions of political marketing were fundamental to Collor's campaign, as he presented himself as young, modern, strong and a good administrator. The result of this was victory: Collor got 53% of the votes, and Lula, 47%.

Accessalso: 1988 Constitution - document that is a democratic milestone for Brazil

Collor government

Fernando Collor de Mello assumed the presidency on the day March 15, 1990. Brazil was going through a strong economic crisis and suffered from very high inflation, but the population's expectations regarding the new president were high. The historian Brasílio Sallum Júnior stated that research at the time showed that 71% of the population was optimistic with the government. |1|

On March 15, 1990, Fernando Collor assumed the presidency of Brazil.[2]

The president's popularity began to wane the very next day with the release of FlatColor. This economic plan sought to solve the inflation problem in Brazil and presented several shock measures. Among these measures, one was already well known by the population at the time: the price freeze.

Another measure was the confiscation of the amounts deposited in savings to decrease the amount of money circulating in the economy. With this action, amounts above 50 thousand new cruzados would be confiscated for up to 18 months and then returned with interest and monetary correction. The confiscation announcement generated panic and queues of people at the banks wanting to withdraw all their money to avoid loss.

Plano Collor also carried out the confiscation of amounts in current accounts and in a modality of the time called overnight, which was widely used by the middle class as a way to combat the impacts of inflation on monthly wages. There was also a salary adjustment and the opening of the country to imported goods.

Inflation even gave in to the government's shock measures, but by the end of 1990 it was on the rise again. The government still sought wipe expensespublic and reduced the number of ministries (going from 23 to 12 ministries), dismissed civil servants and began a process of privatization of state-owned companies. There was also tax increase.

The president's relationship with Congress was, at first, quite stable, mainly because, in the first months of his administration, inflation was kept reasonably under control. However, as the president proved unable to resolve the situation, that relationship with the legislature became quite bad. Opposition to Collor was mainly led by the PT.

Read too: Vice presidents who took over the government in Brazil

Collor Impeachment

The Brazilian population remained anesthetized by the harshness of Plano Collor, most likely because the new government was just beginning and many still believed in the president's success. Everything changed when the complaints of corruption involving Collor began to be aired.

The rumors began to appear in the media as early as 1990, but in May 1992, a denunciation made by the president's own brother, PeterColor, shocked Brazil. At the time, the president was accused of being directly involved in corruption schemes linked to his campaign treasurer, PC Farias.

In this scheme, Collor would have been the great beneficiary, raising around 60 million dollars unlawfully. This money came from schemes for exchanging favors, receiving bribes for appointments to public office, among other situations. Because of the accusations, the major Brazilian parties (PT, PSDB and PMDB) got together and called for a Joint Parliamentary Inquiry Committee (CPMI).

This CPMI was responsible for investigating the actions of PC Farias and trying to identify her relationship with the president. Over time, the investigation gained strength and started to defend the impeachment of the president. The president sought to protect himself by getting the support of 1/3 of Congress and making intimidating statements. He called on the population to take to the streets in his defense, but the popular response was different from what he imagined.

Thousands of people took to the streets demanding the removal of Fernando Collor from the presidency of Brazil.[3]

The second half of 1992 was marked by the painted-face demonstrations. Thousands of citizens took to the streets, dressed and painted themselves in green and yellow to protest against Collor, while others preferred to wear black. The popular choir demanded the removal of the president from his duties.

The vice president, Itamar Franco, protected himself from the situation by expressing not to be involved and disaffiliating himself with the president's party, the PRN. On September 29, 1992, Collor was away provisionally from the presidency and Itamar Franco took over. In Congress, the impeachment was approved by 441 to 38 votes and, in the Senate, by 76 to 3.

Collor tried to preserve himself by resigning, but it didn't work. Your impeachment was consolidated, he lost the office of president of Brazil and also his political rights for eight years. On December 29, 1992, Itamar Franco was officially made president of Brazil.

Note

|1| JUNIOR, Brasílio Sallum. The government and impeachment of Fernando Collor de Mello. In.: FERREIRA, Jorge and DELGADO, Lucilia de Almeida Neves (eds.). Republican Brazil: the time of the New Republic – from the democratic transition to the 2016 political crisis. Rio de Janeiro: Brazilian Civilization, 2018, p. 164.

Image credits:

[1]Presidents Gallery

[2]Senate Archive

[3] Senate Archive and Célio Azevedo

By Daniel Neves Silva
History teacher