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muriel_volestrangler

(101,321 posts) Sun Aug 31, 2014, 07:13 AM Aug 2014

Will Brazil elect Marina Silva as the world's first Green president?

The unveiling in São Paulo of Brazilian presidential candidate Marina Silva's platform for government on Friday was a sometimes bizarre mix of tradition and modernity, conservatism and radicalism, doubt and hope: but for many of those present, it highlighted the very real prospect of an environmentalist taking the reins of a major country.

In a dramatic election that has at times seemed scripted by a telenovela writer, Silva has tripled her coalition's poll ratings in the two weeks since she took over from her predecessor and running mate, Eduardo Campos, who was killed in a plane crash. Following a strong performance in the first TV debate between candidates, polls suggest she will come second in the first-round vote on 5 October and then beat the incumbent, Dilma Rousseff, in the runoff three weeks later.

This is a spectacular turnaround for a candidate who did not even have a party a year ago, when the electoral court ruled that she had failed to collect enough signatures to mount a campaign. It was also the latest in a series of remarkable steps for a mixed-race woman who grew up in a poor family in the Amazon, and went on to become her country's most prominent advocate of sustainable development.

The distance Silva – known as Marina – has come from her remote forest home was evident at the launch of her programme for government in the affluent Pinheiros district of São Paulo. About 250 people – mostly from her Sustainability Network party and its allies in Campos's Brazilian Socialist party (PSB) and other groups – gathered under the chandeliers of the swanky Rosa Rosarum venue, where waiters in white gloves served canapes, while they waited for their leader.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/30/brazil-marina-silva-first-green-president-election-dilma-rousseff

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Will Brazil elect Marina Silva as the world's first Green president? (Original Post) muriel_volestrangler Aug 2014 OP

I guess she's so so Ichingcarpenter Aug 2014 #1

Ichingcarpenter

(36,988 posts)

1. I guess she's so so

Reply to muriel_volestrangler (Original post)

Sun Aug 31, 2014, 09:32 AM

Aug 2014

She has some positive stuff
and some negative stuff too.

Forbes: Meet The Multimillionaire Banking Heir Who Is Backing Brazil's Marina Silva Presidential Bid

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andersonantunes/2014/08/27/meet-the-multi-millionaire-banking-heir-who-is-backing-brazils-marina-silva-presidential-bid/

The simple fact that she could win the election has had a positive impact on the markets. [...] Although Silva has little experience with economic policy, her team of advisers indicate that she would adopt a more orthodox and business-friendly policy than Rousseff.

She represents the economic project of brazilian austerity for the young and hip rightist who wants to pretent right and left are outdated labels.
Shes an evangelical christian who has supported conservative social policies in the past, saying the extremely conservative Marcos Feliciano, head of brazilian human rights legislative commission, was being persecuted not for his horrible anti-women and terribly homophobic policies, but because he was a christian. She herself says she is persecuted because she is a christian. She defends the teaching of creationism in public brazilian schools.

She also said that the African continent was cursed in an interview for the conservative magazine Veja. She later retracted, saying not all of the continent was cursed, because South Africans were white.

She was famously opportunist, leaving the Worker's Party for the Greens, and when she made a name for herself she left the greens to make her own green politics party Rede. This project failed and she moved on to become VP candidate. Her running mate died in a plane crash a few weeks ago. She benefitted tremendously from this, and then got support from the socialist in name only party for the candidacy.

In the context of party politics, she is an outsider who likely won't enjoy legislative support from any of the major parties and as such will do poorly in enacting reform, or will have to sell out tremendously to build alliances in the higher and lower chambers.

She will get 100% of the right-wing vote in the runoff and has a good chance at beating Worker's Party's Dilma Roussef for the brazilian presidency, striking a blow to the broader bolivarian movement in the region.

Political future of article Marina Silva:
In April 2014, Eduardo Campos announced his name for the Brazilian Presidential election, naming Marina Silva as his candidate for vice president.

On Wednesday, 13 August 2014, Campos' private jet, with six others on board, crashed in bad weather as it was preparing to land in the coastal city of Santos, Brazil, just south of São Paulo. After his death, Silva became the Brazilian Socialist Party's candidate for President of Brazil; she enjoys strong support among young voters and evangelicals, but because of her pro-environmental stance she is largely distrusted by Brazil's powerful agribusiness sector. As an Evangelical Christian, she opposes abortion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_Silva

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