Who was Itamar Franco?

An engineer from Juiz de Fora

Itamar Franco was an engineer who made his political career in Juiz de Fora, a city in southeastern Minas Gerais, where he was mayor. He then went to Brasília as a senator for Minas.

In 1989 Brazil held its first direct presidential election in 29 years, and Itamar ran as vice-president on Fernando Collor’s ticket. They won the runoff on December 17, 1989, and took office on March 15, 1990.

The vice who took over

In 1992 a congressional inquiry investigated corruption charges against the president’s campaign treasurer, PC Farias. On September 29, 1992, the Chamber of Deputies voted 441 to 38 to open impeachment proceedings. Three days later, on October 2, Collor was suspended from office and Itamar became acting president.

At the end of December, on the day of his trial in the Senate, Collor resigned by letter. The senators went on with the trial and, by 76 votes to 2, barred him from public office for eight years. From December 29, 1992, Itamar was president in his own right. The students who took to the streets that year are in When did Brazil let 16-year-olds vote?.

A plebiscite and the Itamar Beetle

The 1988 Constitution had promised voters a say on how Brazil should be governed, and Itamar’s government held that plebiscite on April 21, 1993. The ballot asked two questions: republic or monarchy, and presidential or parliamentary system. About 10% voted to bring back a king. The republic and the presidential system won.

That same year Volkswagen went back to making the Fusca, the Beetle, with lower taxes on low-cost cars. Brazilians soon nicknamed it the Fusca Itamar, the Itamar Beetle.

The president of the real

Itamar’s biggest problem was money. He had inherited inflation of more than 1,000% a year, and by May 1993 prices were rising close to 30% a month. In seven months he had changed finance ministers three times. In May 1993 he called in a fourth, his foreign minister, Senator Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who put together a team of economists.

Their plan came in steps announced in advance: first the public accounts, then the URV, a unit of account introduced on March 1, 1994, and finally the new currency. On July 1, 1994, under Itamar’s government, the real entered circulation, each one worth 2,750 cruzeiros reais. By August, monthly inflation was below 2%. How it worked is in What was the Plano Real?.

So the vice who reached the presidency through an impeachment ended up in office when the currency that finally held was launched. His time in office, from the vice’s chair to the new banknotes, is the last stretch of the road that began with the rallies of 1984.