page_title: Dilma Rousseff
section_title: Political positions
hierarchical_section_title: Dilma Rousseff / Political positions
caption_attribution_description: English: The president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff in a meeting with evangelical singers and bishops at Planalto Palace, in Brasília. The meeting was attended by Ana Paula Valadão, Sônia Hernandes, Valnice Milhomens and other evangelical representatives.Português: A presidente do Brasil, Dilma Rousseff em um encontro com cantoras e bispas evangélicas no Palácio do Planalto, em Brasília. O encontro contou com a presença de Ana Paula Valadão, Sônia Hernandes, Valnice Milhomens e outras representantes.
context_page_description: Dilma Vana Rousseff is a Brazilian economist and politician who served as the 36th president of Brazil, holding the position from 2011 until her impeachment and removal from office on 31 August 2016. She was the first woman to hold the Brazilian presidency and had previously served as Chief of Staff to former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from 2005 to 2010.
  The daughter of a Bulgarian immigrant, Rousseff was raised in an upper middle class household in Belo Horizonte. She became a socialist in her youth and after the 1964 coup d'état joined left-wing and Marxist urban guerrilla groups that fought against the military dictatorship. Rousseff was captured, tortured, and jailed from 1970 to 1972.
  After her release, Rousseff rebuilt her life in Porto Alegre with Carlos Araújo, who was her husband for 30 years. They both helped to found the Democratic Labour Party in Rio Grande do Sul, and participated in several of the party's electoral campaigns. She became the treasury secretary of Porto Alegre under Alceu Collares, and later Secretary of Energy of Rio Grande do Sul under both Collares and Olívio Dutra.
context_section_description: Although Rousseff states that her political thinking has changed drastically – from Marxism to pragmatic capitalism – she remains proud of her radical roots.
  Rousseff's views are mostly pro-life, supporting abortion only for pregnancies which endanger the life of the mother or are the result of rape, cases in which the current Brazilian legislation allows women to terminate their pregnancies. However, she was criticized by sectors of the Catholic Church in Brazil and other religious groups, due to her past support for the legalization of abortion. This was also a main target of criticism by José Serra's campaign as well as the newsmagazine Veja, which emphasized Rousseff's past and current positions on its cover. The subject only faded away from the news after the information became public that José Serra's wife, Monica Serra, had reportedly had an abortion in her youth
  When asked about the criminal prosecution against Flamengo goalkeeper Bruno Fernandes de Souza, accused of killing his former girlfriend Eliza Samudio, Rousseff said that she opposes the death penalty. According to her, "if it were effective, there would not be such crimes in the United States."
  Rousseff opposes gay marriage, but supports same-sex civil unions. She said, "Marriage is a religious issue. I, as an individual, would never say what a religion should or should not do. We have to respect them." On the subject of same-sex civil union, Rousseff said that "basic civil rights should be recognized within the civil legal framework." She also opposes the legalization of illegal drugs, stating that "Brazil today is in no condition to propose the decriminalization of any drug."
  As a member of the Workers' Party, a socialist party which opposes Third Way politics, Rousseff was expected to be against privatization and neoliberalism. The Nation, as an example of this rationale, described Rousseff's victory as a defeat for the Washington Consensus. Rousseff, however, has had an ambiguous stance on issues that involve privatization. She is, for instance, "in favor of granting to private enterprises the construction of new power plants and roads, should it be cheaper to do them through grants than through public works." Additionally, she favored the privatization of airports in order to prepare Brazil's infra-structure for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
  She also pledged to deepen the social welfare network inaugurated by the Lula administration, saying that, under her rule, "Brazil will continue to grow, with social inclusion and mobility."
  In 2014, during the presidential elections, the President Dilma Rousseff supported the criminalization of homophobia, citing the "high rate" of acts of violence against homosexuals in the country.
caption: Dilma Rousseff in a meeting with evangelical singers and bishops, at the Planalto Palace.
exif: {}