Environment, Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean

BRAZIL: Former Environment Minister Shakes Up Political Scene

Fabiana Frayssinet

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 20 2009 (IPS) - A likely presidential bid by former Brazilian environment minister Marina Silva, who quit the ruling Workers Party (PT) this week, has shaken up the political scene ahead of the 2010 elections.

In a scenario in which there are no strong candidates, the prominent activist's announcement that she was leaving the governing leftwing party does not bode well for the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The prospect of a run for the presidency by Silva began to be discussed in July, when internal opinion polls carried out by the Green Party (PV) – which she said Wednesday that she would probably join – showed that the environmentalist stood a good chance of being welcomed as the party's presidential candidate for next year's elections.

But the idea really took off – along with the speculation by political analysts – after Silva, who served as environment minister from 2003 to May 2008, formally announced that she was leaving the PT, to which she has belonged since 1985.

"The decision to leave the Workers Party after 30 years was difficult," she told reporters Wednesday.

Silva, who initially became known for her work in defence of the Amazon jungle alongside rubber-tapper trade unionist and activist Chico Mendes – killed by powerful landowners in December 1988 – told the press that "I feel more free to make the transition within the PV," which she was invited to join.

The leading Green Party figures are lawmaker Fernando Gabeira and world-famous musician Gilberto Gil, who was Lula's culture minister.

Silva stepped down as environment minister in May 2008 over discrepancies with other members of Lula's cabinet.

The final straw was a strategic government plan for the Amazon jungle region – where Silva grew up in a family of rubber-tappers – which included major infrastructure projects. She had already clashed with large-scale agribusiness and ranching interests, which she blamed for deforestation of the jungle.

Her differences with the Lula administration were further clarified in the letter in which she announced she was leaving the PT.

"The political conditions did not exist to move forward with a strategic vision, in other words, to place the environmental question firmly at the heart of the government and public policy-making as a whole," she wrote in her letter.

"I have reached the conclusion that after 30 years of socio-environmental struggle in Brazil, it is time to stop fighting to convince the PT…and to join up with different sectors of society willing to assume, fully and clearly, the struggle for a more just and sustainable Brazil," she added.

If Silva is indeed considering standing in the 2010 elections, she does not have much time to decide whether to join the PV because under Brazilian electoral law a candidate must have been a member of that party for at least a year.

On its web site, the PV has already announced that she will be joining on Aug. 30.

Liszt Vieira, a pioneer in Brazil's environmental movement, like others such as Gabeira and current Environment Minister Carlos Minc, says he understands "the disillusionment" that prompted Silva to quit the PT.

"I have great respect for Marina (as she is popularly known); she is an admirable person," Vieira, who is also a political scientist, told IPS.

Vieira, who currently holds an official PT post as head of the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden, said "I think she has strong reasons for leaving the PT, because the party never incorporated the question of sustainable development in its DNA."

He attributed that "non-green genetic make-up" to the PT's historical roots.

One of the main currents in the party, which emerged in the country's industrial heartland, the ABC region of the city of São Paulo, was the trade union movement in the powerful metallurgical industry, "which at that time did not put a priority on environmental questions."

Nor had Marxist factions in the party taken up environmental concerns yet.

"As a legislator advocating for the environment, I was accused of importing an issue that was foreign to Brazil," he recalled. "They told me the environment was a European question. Worries about the environment did not fit in the class struggle."

But Vieira, like many other members of the PT, sees Silva's eventual decision to join the PV as "problematic."

He said the PV is a party "without political direction, although it is united under the environmental banner," and described it as a "party for rent" that forges alliances with other parties, to gain votes and elected posts.

He pointed out that in Rio de Janeiro, for example, it allied itself with rightwing parties like the Democratas (DEM) of former mayor Cesar Maia.

According to Vieira, the Greens are a party with a "pragmatic" rather than ideological stance, which has even opened its arms to legislators "with no knowledge of environmental issues."

The PT environmentalist also said Silva could run up against "ethical and moral" conflicts with the PV over its support for controversial issues like same-sex unions, abortion and stem cell research, because she belongs to an evangelical church.

Others in the PT, like Justice Minister Tarso Genro, said Silva would – without meaning to – "play into the hands of the opposition" if she decided to run for president as PV candidate.

"Marina has enough experience to know that ninety percent of the support that she is receiving is contingent on the electoral process. A large part of the conservatives, neoliberals, anti-PT and anti-Lula sectors would even support Abimael Guzman of Sendero Luminoso (Peru's Maoist Shining Path guerrillas) against the PT and Lula," he quipped.

In an interview with IPS, political analyst Alexandre Barros with the Brasilia-based Early Warning political risk consultancy agreed that as the PV candidate, Silva could take votes from the two main aspirants, thus changing the political scenario.

The contest is likely to be between Lula's chief of staff, Dilma Roussef, and Sao Paulo state governor Jose Serra of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), led by former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso.

According to Barros, Silva could capture votes from the left and from environmentalists both within and outside of the PT. "She could campaign as the 'ethical' candidate, the 'Chico Mendes' candidate, building on the sympathy she earned for quitting the government because she didn't want to cut down trees," he said.

Vieira, for his part, said it is early for political projections, but believed that Silva could probably also garner votes from young environmentalists who identify with neither the PT nor the PSDB.

He said she could resonate with the urban middle-class, campaigning on a platform of "ethics and sustainability," and that she could also draw the votes of "evangelicals," a growing force in Brazil.

But both Barros and Vieira agree that the former minister could also "steal" votes from the PSDB.

"Marina can't 'bring' votes, but she can 'take' votes," said Barros, referring to her scant chances of actually winning.

In the polls, Silva has three percent ratings, compared to 16 percent for Rousseff and 37 percent for Serra.

Silva anticipated that, if she runs, she would inject the question of sustainable development into the campaign.

But Brazilian voters are more worried about immediate issues like high unemployment and crime rates, said Barros.

Vieira, on the other hand, had a more positive reading on that score. "Marina comes from a poor Amazonian region. That's why she knows how to deal with social matters. She will link the question of sustainable development to social inclusion," he said.

Silva was illiterate till the age of 14, when she left her home village of Bagaco in the state of Acre to study in the city and receive treatment for hepatitis. She worked as a rubber-tapper and later as a domestic. But she went on to earn a university degree in history.

Her decision to leave the PT comes at a touchy moment for the party. On the day she made her announcement, the government's representatives on the Senate Ethics Commission voted to put an end to investigations of the Commission's chairman, José Sarney, who faces charges of nepotism, influence-peddling, and embezzlement.

Sarney, a former president (1985-1990) and a leader of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), is an important PT ally.

He could help the PT forge important alliances behind Rousseff at the state level in next year's elections, Jairo Marconi, a political scientist with the University Research Institute of Rio de Janeiro (IUPERJ), told IPS.

Lula cannot run for a third consecutive term, and his chosen successor, Rousseff – who is being treated for lymphatic cancer – is not faring that well in the polls.

Marconi believes the election debate could be enriched if Silva joins the race as the PV candidate, which he said would be positive for Brazil.

"The novelty would be that the political agenda and debate would start focusing on sustainable development – not just as another issue, but as a basic aspect of economic policy," he said.

Electoral "hunting season is open," said Barros. "Now everyone has to start taking stances to jostle for position."