The Sinking of the SS Sarney

By giving Roseana Sarney its unqualified support
her own party left voters with the impression
that it is more interested in protecting its
candidate than seeing justice done.

John Fitzpatrick

Only a few months ago it looked as though Brazil was on its way to electing its first woman president, Roseana Sarney, who was then riding high in opinion polls. Now, mired in a financial scandal, she has pulled out of the race, having lost not only the support of ordinary voters but even of her own PFL party. The latest Datafolha poll put her in fourth place and showed that she would have lost in a second-round runoff with the left-wing PT candidate, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Ms. Sarney recently resigned her post as governor of Maranhão state to stand for the presidency but she is unlikely to be out of political office for long as she has announced that she will run for the Senate. The Sarney grip in its northeastern stronghold is such that she will probably achieve this goal if not the greater goal of the presidency.

This dramatic setback follows the police raid earlier this year on a company, jointly owned by Ms Sarney and her husband, which uncovered R$ 1.3 million (US$ 558,000) in cash. Police suspect the money originated from corrupt activities, but Ms. Sarney's husband, Jorge Murad, said it was for electoral expenses and had been donated by well-wishers.

The PFL may be regretting its decision to pull out of the government of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso in sympathy with Ms. Sarney. The quickness with which the Party deserted its former darling shows that one cannot discount the possibility of it even rejoining the government. The other two main parties in the governing alliance—the President's own PSDB (Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira—Party of the Brazilian Social Democracy) and the PMDB (Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro—Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement)—have been making soothing noises and saying they want the PFL in any new government after the presidential election.

By giving Ms. Sarney its unqualified support the PFL left voters with the impression that it is more interested in protecting its candidate than seeing justice done. The party is now desperate to get this affair out of the way and has started cooperating in Congress to unblock measures, which its filibustering tactics have held up.

In mid-April, after Roseana Sarney finally published a list of names of people who supposedly have made the electoral campaign contributions found in her office, the PFL leader Jorge Bornhausen said that as far as he was concerned the affair was closed. This is wishful thinking but shows that the PFL wants to distance itself from this affair and the would-be presidential candidate.

Ms. Sarney's conduct has been unimpressive since the scandal started and she has shown a remarkable lack of judgment for one attaining to the highest office in the land. First of all, she made no attempt to explain why her company was holding such a vast sum of money. Secondly, she claimed to be the victim of a plot by supporters of the probable government candidate, José Serra, and said she was being discriminated against because she was a woman.

Instead of coming clean, she allowed her allies to flood the media with so many different versions of where the money came from that she lost virtually all credibility and sympathy. In March, Murad resigned from a senior position he held in the state government of Maranhão and said that he alone had been responsible for amassing the money. No-one was impressed and events have shown why—thanks to an announcement by the Maranhão government that Murad had been appointed state Secretary for Science and Technology.

Apparently Murad is unqualified for this post but he will benefit since, under the current law, as a senior official he will appear before a court in Brasília, not Maranhão, where he will be less liable to tough questioning from local prosecutors with local knowledge.

For its part, the government has been pretty lily-livered by agreeing to put off the appearances of Ms. Sarney and her husband, which was due to take place in mid-April.

John Fitzpatrick is a Scottish journalist who first visited Brazil in 1987 and has lived in São Paulo since 1995. He writes on politics and finance and runs his own company, Celtic Comunicações, which specializes in editorial and translation services for Brazilian and foreign clients. You can reach him at jf@celt.com.br

This article was originally published in Infobrazil  (www.infobrazil.com), an E-zine on Brazilian culture and current events. 

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