José Sarney de Araújo Costa

Sarney é reeleito presidente do Senado com 70 dos 81 votos

Com o voto de 70 dos 81 senadores, o ex-presidente da República José Sarney (PMDB-AP) foi reeleito para seu quarto mandato como presidente do Senado na manhã desta terça-feira logo após a cerimônia de posse dos 54 senadores. Com o apoio declarado da maioria das bancadas, Sarney vai gerir a Casa nos próximos dois anos. Randolfe Rodrigues (Psol-AP) obteve oito votos. Dois parlamentares votaram em branco e um anulou seu voto.

O peemedebista havia declarado que não pretendia concorrer à reeleição, mas que a "unanimidade do PMDB insistiu em sua reeleição". Na última sexta-feira, quando confirmou a candidatura, Sarney atribuiu a insistência do PMDB para que concorresse à sua capacidade em "manter a unidade do partido".

Para eleger o presidente, os 54 senadores empossados se somaram aos 27 que ainda cumprem o mandato de oito anos no plenário. Primeiro foram eleitos os líderes das bancadas para depois passar à eleição da Mesa. Além de Sarney, o PSOL lançou como candidato o senador Randolfe Rodrigues (AP). Como havia dois candidatos, a votação foi feita em cédulas de papel.

José Sarney de Araújo Costa (Portuguese pronunciation: [ʒuˈzɛ saʁˈnej dʒi aɾaˈuʒu ˈkɔstɐ]; born 24 April 1930 in Pinheiro, Maranhão) is a Brazilian lawyer, writer and politician. He served as president of Brazil from 15 March 1985 to 15 March 1990.
Sarney ascended in the politics of his home state of Maranhão as part of the "Bossa Nova Generation" of UDN politicians in the 1950s, young idealists seeking to reorganize public administration and rid the government of corruption and old deleterious practices. Over time, Sarney and his family acquired enormous clout over Maranhão's public life, and he is today regarded as the foremost of Brazil's oligarchs. Sarney owns the most important newspapers and TV stations in Maranhão, and he remains influential there, even though he now is a congressman for the smaller state of Amapá. In 2009, the British weekly The Economist called his election for President of the Senate "a victory for semi-feudalism" and "a throwback to an era of semi-feudal politics that still prevails in corners of Brazil and holds the rest of it back." Veja columnist Roberto Pompeu de Toledo deemed him "the perfect oligarch."
His support for the Brazilian military dictatorship, multiple alegations of nepotism and corruption, and the failure of the Plano Cruzado monetary reforms during his presidential term also have contributed to mar Sarney's image. He is the longest-standing member of the Brazilian Congress, and holds office since 1958 without interruption. Sarney is also an accomplished writer, and a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters.


Name
Born José Ribamar Ferreira de Araújo Costa, he was the son of Sarney de Araújo Costa, a wealthy land-owner and sugarcane producer, and Kiola Ferreira de Araújo Costa. In 1965 he legally adopted the name José Sarney de Araújo Costa, usually shortened to José Sarney ([ʒoˈzɛ sahˈnej]), for electoral purposes, since he was known as "Zé do Sarney", as in "José, son of Sarney". Married with Marly Sarney, his progeny are Congressman José Sarney Filho, Governor Roseana Sarney, and the businessman Fernando Sarney.


Political biography
Sarney started his political career as a federal deputy in the late 1950s. He was a member of the centre-right National Democratic Union (União Democrática Nacional—UDN), being aligned with the progressive wing of the party. He strongly supported so-called "Revolution of 1964", a military coup that overthrew President leftist João Goulart in 1964.
After the military coup, Sarney was a member of the ARENA, the political party of the military government and was elected as governor of the state of Maranhão in 1966, serving until 1971. He was then elected to the Brazilian Senate and became ARENA's president.
Sarney, however, had never been quite accepted by the military establishment, which tried to block his career. In 1979 ARENA changed its name to PDS, and Sarney remained the party's president. In 1984, the military rule was under pressure due to popular protests to reinstall direct elections for president (Diretas Já movement). PDS was divided, but launched Paulo Maluf as its candidate for the presidency in indirect elections. Sarney disagreed with this decision and left PDS to form the Liberal Front, which then allied with the PMDB.
As part of the deal, Sarney became Tancredo Neves' running mate on the opposition ticket. Neves won the election of 15 January 1985, but on the eve of taking the oath he became severely ill. Sarney assumed office as acting president until Neves died on 21 April, then he formally became the first civilian president in 21 years.
His succession raised some question because, as Neves could not attend the inauguration ceremony on March 15, several politicians contended at the time that Sarney shouldn't have been inaugurated as Vice-President and allowed to assume the role of Acting President. Those politicians believed that, since Sarney had been elected Vice-President only virtue of the election of his running mate as President (each member of the Electoral College casted one vote only, for President, and the choice of President carried with it the automatic selection of the ticket's running mate as Vice-President) Sarney could only take office as Vice-President together with Neves. They argued that, in the event of the head of the presidential ticket not being able to assume office, the presidency should pass to the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Ulysses Guimarães. There was some partisanship in this line of thought, since both Neves and Guimarães were members of the same party, and Sarney was not; he had been a supporter of the Military, and only recently had joined the coalition to defeat the military's candidate in the electoral college. The challenge to Sarney's inauguration was short-lived, however, because in the early hours of inauguration day Guimarães himself stated that he believed that Sarney had the right to be inaugurated even without Neves.
Sarney and the president of Argentina Raúl Alfonsín started the process of the creation of a common market between the two nations in 1985. As first steps, they agreed to subsidize regional trade with a special currency for the purpose (the Gaucho). This agreement led to the formation of the Mercosul in 1991.