José Sarney's Government: characteristics and context

José Sarney was at the head of the first civil government of Brazil after the end of the Military dictatorship. Sarney took over after Tancredo and Sarney's ticket victory in 1985 indirect election. With the death of Tancredo, José Sarney ended up assuming the presidency of Brazil and was the country's governor during the process of rebuilding democracy.

During his government, one of the most remarkable events was the elaboration of a new constitution for Brazil. This took place through the work of the Constituent Assembly that was formed in 1987. José Sarney's government also tried to fight the inflation and the economic crisis, but ended up failing. Sarney ended his administration with a very low popularity and denounced for being involved in corruption.

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Context: the redemocratization of Brazil

José Sarney's government was only made possible by the redemocratization that Brazil went through in the 1980s. The democratic opening began during the

government of Ernesto Geisel as a military strategy to deploy civilian governments that were fully aligned with the interests of the Armed Forces. Historians call this “openingcontrolled”.

• Direct now

The interests of the military ended up frustrated with the popular demand for the democratization of the country. This process was reinforced with the emergence of new political parties, which gave strength to the political opposition. In 1982, the opposition managed to win gubernatorial elections in ten states – a clear indication of the strength of the opposition parties to the regime.

From 1984 onwards, the struggle for the redemocratization of Brazil gained strength with the campaign for direct elections. Names like UlyssesGuimaraes, squid and LeonelBrizola supported the campaign for direct presidential elections – something that had not happened since the 1960s. THE Direct Now Campaign it was the result of an amendment proposed by a PMDB deputy, which became known as the Dante de Oliveira Amendment.

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Millions of Brazilians took to the streets to demand direct elections, with the involvement of influential people in society at the time, such as Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Franco Montoro and Tancredo Neves. In São Paulo, the Diretas Já rally mobilized 1.5 million people|1|.

The Dante de Oliveira Amendment needed 320 votes to pass, and thus the 1985 presidential election would be straightforward. THE population expectation it was gigantic, as the voice of the population had been clear and the desire was that the choice of the president be made by the people. But that didn't happen, and the amendment received only 298 of the 320 votes it needed.

Accessalso: All indirect elections that have taken place in the history of Brazil

• 1985 Election

During the 1985 election, Minas Gerais politician Tancredo Neves ran for president of Brazil.[1]

How the 1985 presidential election would be held from indirect way, it was up to the Electoral College to make that choice. The amendment's defeat was naturally a shock to the population, but the PMDB had to reorganize itself to face the military in the election. A change was made, and Ulysses Guimarães was replaced by Tancredo Neves as the opposition presidential candidate.

That's because Tancredo Neves was more likely to win the dispute at the Electoral College.

Tancredo Neves he was a traditional Minas Gerais politician, had a better relationship with the military and had negotiated with them not to investigate or punish them for crimes committed during the dictatorship if elected. Thus, he ended up being chosen by the PMDB as a candidate for the presidency of Brazil.

Tancredo would run against the PDS candidate, Arena's heir party. By indication of the president, the candidate chosen by the PDS was Paulmaluf, but that choice cracked the PDS. Within the party, there were numerous candidacies and, therefore, the members of the PDS supported the realization of (pre-election polling to get an idea of ​​voter trends) to decide the candidate of the PDS.

The appointment of Paulo Maluf ended up trampling the desire of party members and, therefore, the PDS split. The splinter group formed the Liberal Front (FL), and this dissent ended up negotiating with Tancredo Neves to support his candidacy. One of the top names in FL, Josephsarney, ended up moving from the PDS to the PMDB and was chosen as a candidate for vice president of Tancredo as part of the agreement between PMDB and FL.

Part of the opposition, represented by the PT, refused to join the 1985 electoral campaign for not agreeing with the choice being indirect. In any case, Tancredo Neves' electoral campaign was a success and he defeated Paulo Maluf at the Electoral College by 480 against 180 votes. The victory took place on January 15, 1985, and the inauguration would take place on March 15, 1985.

The Brazilian population was euphoric with the victory of the Minas Gerais politician, as it marked the end of two decades of dictatorship and of military governments. But things ended up not going the way everyone expected.

Death of Tancredo Neves

Tancredo Neves he had been experiencing abdominal pain for some time. He had hidden his pains because he feared they would be used as an excuse by the military to prevent him from being sworn in as president. So, he tried to bear the pain by self-medicating. On the night of March 14, on the eve of the inauguration, Tancredo Neves passed onbad and needed to be hospitalized in a rush.

At the Base Hospital in Brasília, Tancredo refused to undergo surgery, but his case was one of life or death, as he had a generalized infection. The medical treatment he received was disastrous, the situation was not resolved and the coming and going of people was intense. The risk of a hospital infection was great.

During the operation, a benign tumor infected, but the doctors lied and claimed that he had removed a diverticulum. Tancredo Neves' situation did not improve, and his family ended up transferring him to São Paulo. There he went through more sixsurgeries, but did not resist the infectious condition and died on April 21, 1985. During this period Tancredo agonized and slowly died.

With Tancredo's internment, disbelief gripped the country and a dilemma loomed over the political class: who would take over? At the time, many suggested the inauguration of Ulysses Guimarães, president of the Chamber of Deputies and the big name of the opposition at the time. There was fear that the military would reject Ulysses's inauguration, and political negotiations led to the name of the deputy himself, José Sarney.

THE ownership by sarney it was temporary, but still not well regarded by many. The politician from Maranhão had built his career in politics as a supporter of the military and had only passed to the opposition in the last months of the dictatorship. When Tancredo Neves died, Sarney ceased to be interim president and took office.

Accessalso: History of elections in Brazil

Government of José Sarney

With the death of Tancredo Neves, his deputy, José Sarney, assumed the presidency of Brazil.[2]

José Sarney ruled Brazil from March 15, 1985 to March 15, 1990. Initially, his term was six years and he tried to extend the power as much as he could, but ended up having to accept the reduction of his term from six to five years. Sarney was in the presidency when Brazil was going through the rebuilding of its democracy and important events happened during his government.

One of the highlights was the approval of the splice, a constitutional amendment that brought back important rights to the population, such as the right to vote for the illiterate. Furthermore, the socialist and communist-oriented parties were able to function legally again – they had been outlawed in 1947.

During this period, important benefits emerged, such as the unemployment insurance, the worker's right to transportation vouchers etc. The Brazilian government resumed relations with Cuba and reconnected with Argentina and Uruguay, signing trade agreements that years later resulted in the emergence of Mercosur.

At economy, Sarney's government failed, as it failed to resolve the economic crisis or curb inflation. This was evident in the case of cross plan, a plan that appeared to resolve the situation in the economy, but ended up failing. Like Cruzado Plan II, the Brazilian population felt cheated, as prices increased considerably. THE inflation reached almost 2000% during the Sarney administration.

1988 Constitution

The promulgation of the Citizen Constitution took place on October 5, 1988 and was carried out by Ulysses Guimarães.[2]

The great moment of the entire redemocratization of Brazil, without a shadow of a doubt, was the entire process of elaboration of the 1988 Constitution. In early 1987, the constituent Assembly was sworn in with the task of drafting the new Constitution. The Constituent Assembly was formed by 559 congressmen, who, for more than a year and a half, worked on the new constitutional text of Brazil.

The Constituent Assembly had important names in the political history of Brazil, such as Mário Covas, FHC, Lula, Plínio de Arruda, among others. The entire process of drafting the Constituent Assembly lasted throughout 1987 and a good part of 1988 and had an enormous population participation.

Minority advocacy groups such as women, blacks and indigenous people showed their strength and demanded that their rights be included in the Constitution. In all, they were carried out 122 popular amendments which had millions of signatures from ordinary citizens. Historians Lilia Schwarcz and Heloísa Starling claim that Brazil “was making a solid democratic commitment” to this Constitution.

The process, however, was troubled and had numerous frictions between the president and the constituents and progressive groups with conservative groups. Historian Jorge Ferreira stated that Sarney showed disagreement with the proposals approved during the Constituent Assembly and stated that the country would be ungovernable with the new Constitution|2|.

There was intense lobby of economic groups interested in blocking certain proposals. One of them was the agrarian reform, a proposal that was strongly opposed by rural groups and ended up not being included in the final text. These groups also took a stand against proposals in defense of indigenous rights.

A defining moment at the Constituent Assembly was a speech and protest given in September 1987 by Ailton Krenak, an important leadership for the indigenous people at the time. Other important rights were included in the final text of the 1988 Constitution, which brought significant advances in the area of ​​social rights.

The 1988 Constitution was promulgated on October 5, 1988 after a speech by the president of the Constituent Assembly, Ulysses Guimarães. In his speech, Ulysses made clear the country's wishes after leaving the dictatorship:

“the Nation wants to change, the Nation must change, the Nation will change. The Constitution intends to be the voice, the letter, the political will of society towards change. May the enactment be our cry: ‘Change to win!’ Change, Brazil!”|3|

readalso: Vice presidents who took over the government in Brazil

Transition

At the end of 1989, José Sarney was extremely unpopular. The country's economy was in tatters. Politically he had accumulated enemies and was isolated, in addition to being frequently denounced in corruption schemes. He failed to establish a successor, so the 1989 presidential election was close. At the end of the election, Fernando Collor de Mello was elected to the presidency of Brazil.

Grades

|1| SCHWARCZ, Lilia Moritz and STARLING, Heloísa Murgel. Brazil: A Biography. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2015, p. 484.

|2| FERREIRA Jorge. The accidental president: José Sarney and the democratic transition. 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. 55-56.

|3| GUIMARÃES, Ulysses. Speech given at the session of October 5, 1988. To read the entire speech, click on here.

Image credits:

[1] Federal Senate Archive / Célio Azevedo

[2] Federal Senate Archive

By Daniel Neves
History teacher