Shooting on Goal

Presidential hopeful José Serra's decision to choose a woman as
running mate could spur other candidates to also pick
a female. This could add sparkle to the campaign but it is
doubtful. No one votes for vice-president.

John Fitzpatrick

Brazilians have a lot to celebrate at the moment. Firstly, we have gained our first saint, proclaimed by the Pope himself in a ceremony at the Vatican, attended by President Fernando Henrique Cardoso (a future saint himself?) and various political attention seekers. The fact that the saint, Madre Paulina, was born in Italy is not important as it is virtually impossible to find anyone in southern Brazil whose granny was not Italian.

Secondly, Brazil will soon be in action in the World Cup finals. Although the team is not as good as one would wish (thanks to the coach's spiteful decision to leave out brilliant bad boy Romário) it should coast through the first round against minnows like Turkey, Costa Rica and China. Unfortunately these games will take place at unearthly hours like 3:30 a.m. and 6 p.m., but patriotic Brazilians will set their alarms clocks and support their team through bleary eyes.

Thirdly, the World Cup will distract attention from the goings on of our political masters in the run-up to the presidential elections. Even at peak viewing time few Brazilians will be cheering on any of the would-be presidents.

The presidential campaign has become like a boring novela (soap opera), which appears every night but no one watches any more. Even when the plot is spiced up a bit—with a bit of glamour and corruption—it makes no difference to the ratings.

Let's look at glamour and corruption in terms of the government's preferred candidate, former Health Minister José Serra. Glamour entered late last month in the shape of Congresswoman Rita Camata who was named as Serra's running mate. Not only is she good-looking and a million times more photogenic than Serra, she has a good legislative track record, too. But does anyone really care? After all, she was Serra's third choice—perhaps fourth if you believe some reports that he favored Senator Pedro Simon, but was overruled by President Fernando Henrique Cardoso.

The first choice, Pernambuco State Governor Jarbas Vasconcelos, retreated earlier this year, scared that Serra would not improve his abysmal opinion poll ratings. The second, House Representative Henrique Eduardo Alves from Rio Grande do Norte, was ditched after allegations that he had money stashed away in undeclared bank accounts abroad. Even Ms Camata expressed little public enthusiasm when her name was put forward.

In constitutional terms the vice-presidency is very important and two recent vice-presidents—José Sarney and Itamar Franco—became full presidents due to the respective death and resignation of the bosses, Tancredo Neves and Fernando Collor. However, during Cardoso's less dramatic mandates the vice-president has become almost invisible. Probably most electors could not even name the incumbent, Marco Maciel. Serra's decision could spur the PT candidate, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, to pick a female running mate. This could add a bit of much-needed sparkle to the campaign but it is doubtful. No one votes for vice-president.

Introducing corruption has also done nothing to boost the ratings. Early May, the magazine Veja brought up Serra's name in a report alleging that a former director of the state-owned Banco do Brasil, who was close to Serra, had demanded payment from a businessman to pay for earlier political campaigns. For almost a week the media was in a feeding frenzy, but what was Serra's response? He waved it aside with a few curt dismissals, and left it to others, including Cardoso himself who called it "reheated", to deal with the allegations. Today it is no longer an issue.

Serra walked away from what could have been a public relations disaster not because people think he is necessarily more honest or innocent but because they are fed up with politics. Hardly a day passes without the release of a new opinion poll. Lula is always well ahead of the pack, with Serra and Rio's former Governor Anthony Garotinho far behind. In this particular case, it was interesting to note how the media backed off in a way they did not do with Senators Jáder Barbalho and Antonio Carlos Magalhães who were hounded out of office last year. Is the fact that Serra is from São Paulo—where the media is strongest and most anti-Lula, while the other two were from the North and Northeast—relevant?

Serra is right to be dismissive and offhand because he knows he is the only serious contender against Lula. Just as France's right-wing president Jacques Chirac got the left-wing vote against Le Pen so Serra will get the center and right-wing votes against Lula. Serra is waiting for the apples to fall into his lap and they have already started. The PFL, which left the government over allegations that Serra and his supporters had sabotaged the plans of its candidate, Roseana Sarney, was talking about lining up with him against Lula. The media is also generally on Serra's side and is full of articles questioning whether the PT has really changed its stripes and prophesizing dire consequences if he wins.

For the next couple of weeks sport not politics will dominate the media giving us all a well-deserved break. Roll on the World Cup and, in the sad absence of Scotland, let's all cheer on Brazil!

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 by E-zine Infobrazil - www.infobrazil.com

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