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Sarney's Presidency, 1985-90
Sarney's Presidency, 1985-90
The government's strategy of controlling the election of the first
civilian president in the 1985 electoral college almost received
a mortal blow on April 25, 1984. On that day, the diretas já!
constitutional amendment, which called for direct elections for
president on November 15, 1984, came just twenty-two votes shy of
the necessary two-thirds majority (320 votes). In late June 1984,
the Liberal Front dissident group split from the military government's
PDS (Democratic Social Party) and joined the PMDB
led by Governor Tancredo Neves (Minas
Gerais). In the second half of 1984, massive rallies engulfed
Brazil, as the Tancredo Neves-Sarney ticket consolidated its 300-vote
margin over Paulo Maluf (PDS-São Paulo) in the January 1985
electoral college.
Sarney got his start in politics in his home state of Maranhão
in the late 1950s as federal deputy in the progressive wing of the
National Democratic Union (União Democrática Nacional--UDN).
A staunch supporter of the 1964 revolution, he was able to defeat
the PSD
(Social Democratic Party) political machine in direct elections
for governor in 1965, and was elected senator by Arena (National
Renewal Alliance) in 1970. The military government never quite accepted
Sarney and vetoed his attempts to return to the governorship in
1974 and 1978. He was also passed over several times for the presidency
of the Senate and for the post of minister of justice in 1980. As
a consolation prize, he became president of the PDS. In 1984 Sarney
was one of the dissident leaders of the schism in the PDS, and he
became Tancredo Neves's running mate.
Tancredo Neves took ill on the eve of his inauguration on March
14, 1985, and died on April 21. Sarney was first sworn in as vice
president and then acting president within a very loose interpretation
of the constitutional norms for presidential succession.
Deputy Ulysses Guimarães had been elected president of the
Chamber of Deputies on February 1 and by right should have assumed
the presidency because neither Tancredo Neves nor Sarney had been
inaugurated. On the death of Tancredo Neves, a new indirect election
should have been called within ninety days. Guimarães, perhaps
sensing that the military would not accept this scenario, graciously
declined in favor of Sarney.
Sarney's first year was very difficult. He was unprepared to assume
the presidency and was assisted immediately by General Ivan Souza
Mendes, director of the National Intelligence Service (Serviço
Nacional de Informações--SNI). In effect, Brazil's
government was an informal parliamentary system during 1985, with
Deputy Guimarães and PMDB Senate floor leader Fernando Henrique
Cardoso acting as informal prime ministers. The Sarney administration
moved to consolidate representative democracy in 1985: it legalized
the two communist parties, the PCB
and the PC do B, allowed illiterates to vote, and called for
direct elections for mayors of all capital cities and "national
security" municipalities.
The PMDB performed poorly in the November 15, 1985, mayoral elections,
when former president Jânio Quadros of the
PTB (Brazilian Labor Party) narrowly defeated Cardoso
for mayor of São
Paulo. However, Sarney recovered national prestige and high
standing in the polls following the introduction of the Cruzado
Plan on February 28, 1986, and began to consolidate his power as
president. The PMDB became the great "umbrella" party
in the 1986 elections, leading a broad coalition to victory in all
states but Sergipe, and electing an absolute majority in the ANC
(National Constituent Assembly).
Rapid consolidation of democracy in Brazil after 1985 was in part
slowed by some of the concessions negotiated by Tancredo Neves with
the military to ensure their support. Tancredo Neves agreed that
members of the armed forces who had been expelled for subversion
after 1964 would not receive amnesty and reinstatement; that there
would be no independent, noncongressional Constituent Assembly;
and that before the new constitution was finished and promulgated,
none of the authoritarian decrees--National Security Law, antistrike
law, repressive press law, and limitations on Congress--would be
canceled or modified.
By October 1988, Sarney, who was still a nominal member of the
PMDB, had grown very unpopular because of increasing inflation and
allegations of corruption. As a result, the PMDB lost many cities
in the November 15, 1988, municipal elections--of the 100 largest
cities, the party dropped from seventy-seven to twenty mayors, but
in 1992 elected twenty-nine; in 1996 the number fell back to only
sixteen (see table 21, Appendix). In addition, impeachment proceedings
were initiated against Sarney on charges of corruption. The CPI
(Congressional Investigating Committee) reported in favor of impeachment,
but the measure was not transmitted to the floor of the Chamber
of Deputies for deliberation.
During Sarney's presidency, Brazil suffered four austerity shock
plans and used three currencies. Thus, for the December 17, 1989,
runoff, voters selected the two presidential candidates who most
vociferously criticized the Sarney presidency--Collor
(PRN) and Lula (Workers' Party).
Data as of April 1997
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