In Brazil, a Rising Star and Potential President
By Theresa Bradley | September 23, 2009 | Brazil
Buzzed-about potential presidential candidate Marina Silva offered a snapshot of Brazilian democracy in action this week, fielding questions from a squad of journalists and viewers in an hour-and-a-half interview that showed her to be the calm underdog and agitator that observers say could reshape the 2010 presidential race.
Her smooth style and fast, easy speech were more like Obama than they were like the podium-pounding dinosaurs whose Senate-floor shouting match was rebroadcast on congressional TV at the same time that she appeared on the program “Roda Viva.” Brazilian media appear to find her manner and life story compelling – and have already been criticized for being “dazzled” by a novelty candidate with little real support.
Silva does face tough odds to be Brazil’s next president. A recent poll showed her with just 4.8 percent support a year before elections, trailing Heloisa Helena, a leftist senator; Lula’s chief-of-staff Dilma Rousseff, who is running partly on her ties to the popular president; and Sao Paulo state governor Jose Serra, who lost to Lula in 2002 but is next year's leading candidate. (Edwards… Clinton… McCain?)
To be sure, Silva’s bootstrap biography rivals President Lula’s rise from shining shoes on the Sao Paulo streets. Reportedly one of 11 children born to a family of rubber-tappers in Brazil’s western-most Acre state, she grew up gathering rubber and fishing in the forest until illness brought her to a nearby city at age 16. She worked as a maid and learned to read, ultimately earning a university degree in history, working to unionize rubber tappers and to protest deforestation alongside Amazon activist Chico Mendes. She served in the Senate for eight years until a newly-elected Lula named her environment minister in 2002; but she clashed with counterparts in his administration over dams, development and agribusiness issues and resigned after five years to return the Senate. In August 2009, she left Lula’s Workers’ Party to join the opposition Greens – a move widely seen as her first step toward a 2010 presidential bid.
On Monday night, she twirled in a swivel chair on the set of “Roda Viva,” taking questions from the half-dozen journalists who looked down on her from a raised podium. Critics warn that Silva would be a one-issue candidate (the environment), and the assembled reporters interrupted one another in a scramble to pin down her positions, offering a litmus of Brazilian political concerns.
Her answers:
--Offshore oil finds should spur technological innovation in Brazil, but can't be expected to yield fuel for 20 years;
--Nuclear power is expensive and unsafe and Brazil has “no reason” to further pursue it, as Lula's government plans to do;
--Venezuela is welcome to join the Mercosur trade bloc, a move conservative Brazilian senators oppose;
--Abortion should be legalized through a national referendum, not by any presidential action;
--Marijuana should not be decriminalized, as Brazil's former president and its current environment minister reportedly suggested;
--Creationism should not be taught in schools, the question itself being “an artificial transposition of a U.S. debate.”
Presidential elections won’t be held until October 2010, and Silva this week emphasized that she hadn’t yet declared her candidacy. To win, any candidate needs 50 percent of the vote; otherwise, the top two contenders square off in a run-off election three weeks later.
Should Silva run, her fate may be sealed by Lula and the extent to which he can use his popularity – at 65 percent in early September – to persuade voters to cast their compulsory ballots for Rousseff. Even if she splits off some Workers' Party voters, Brazil's run-off system makes it unlikely that she would end up boosting Serra's chances, although her presence would keep environmental issues close to the center of the debate. Either way, Silva is 51 years old, and 2010 may only mark the start of her national political career.
In Rio de Janeiro, a costume shop is already making Carnival masks of her face, preparing early to outfit February partiers who often dress as political figures including Lula and Obama. Whether or not the shop owners expect Silva to have staying power, they must at least believe she’ll be popular for the year to come.
Click here to see video highlights of Marina Silva on “Roda Vida,” 9/21/09.
Your donation helps continue the IRP's work to inform the public about international issues.
Make A Gift