page_title: José Sarney
section_title: Political career
hierarchical_section_title: José Sarney / Political career
caption_attribution_description: Posse do presidente José Sarney e seu substituto legal Ulysses Guimarães em 15 de março de 1985, em sessão conjunta do Congresso Nacional, presidida pelo senador José Fragelli. Foto: Senado Federal
context_page_description: José Sarney de Araújo Costa is a Brazilian politician, lawyer, and writer who served as 31st President of Brazil from April 21, 1985 to March 15, 1990. At age 90, he is the oldest living former Brazilian president, and, as of the death of João Figueiredo in 1999, one of only two living former presidents not elected by direct vote; the other is Michel Temer.
  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. During the Brazilian military dictatorship, which imposed a two-party system, Sarney affiliated himself with the government party, ARENA, becoming the president of the party in 1979. As the regime fell, however, ARENA split over the appointment of Paulo Maluf as its presidential candidate. Sarney joined the dissenters, and was instrumental in the creation of the Liberal Front Party. He agreed to run for Vice-President on the ticket of Tancredo Neves of PMDB, formerly the opposition party to the military government.
context_section_description: Sarney started his political career as a federal deputy in 1955.  He was a member of the centre-right National Democratic Union (União Democrática Nacional—UDN), aligned with the progressive wing of the party. He strongly supported so-called "Revolution of 1964", a military coup that overthrew leftist President João Goulart in 1964. After the military coup, Sarney followed most of the UDN into the National Renewal Alliance (ARENA), the political party of the military government. He was elected governor of the state of Maranhão in 1966, serving until 1971. He was then elected to the Brazilian Senate and became ARENA's president.
  Despite his support for the government's heavy-handed measures against dissent, Sarney had never been quite accepted by the military establishment, which tried to block his career. In 1979 ARENA reorganized as the Democratic Social Party (PDS), and Sarney remained the party's president. In 1984, the junta was under pressure due to popular protests to reinstate 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 Party, 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 became gravely ill the night before his inauguration. Sarney assumed office as vice-president and acting president until Neves died on 21 April, and 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 15 March, several politicians contended at the time that Sarney should not have been inaugurated as vice-president and allowed to become acting president. They believed that Sarney had been elected vice-president only by virtue of the election of his running mate as president. Each member of the Electoral College cast one vote, for president, and the choice of president carried with it the automatic selection of the ticket's running mate as vice-president, Sarney could take office only as vice-president together with Neves, they said. They argued that in the event of the head of the presidential ticket not being able to assume office, the presidential powers and duties 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, as the role of the vice-president was precisely that of replacing the president when needed.
  Sarney and the president of Argentina, Raúl Alfonsín, started the process of creating 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). The agreement led to the formation of the Mercosur in 1991. He also oversaw constitutional amendments that purged the remaining vestiges of authoritarianism from the 1967/1969 Constitution.
  He faced many problems: enormous foreign debt, rampant inflation and corruption as well as the transition to democracy. Sarney launched an economic plan to stabilize the economy, called "Plano Cruzado", successful at first. But the inflation became got worse than ever after a year. A new, fully democratic constitution was promulgated in 1988, and in the following year, the first direct elections since 1960 were held. Sarney was barred from running for president in his own right in that election. In Brazil, when a vice president serves part of a president's term —including when the president is ab
caption: Sarney takes the oath of office as Vice President of Brazil on 15 March 1985, immediately becoming Acting President
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