JORNAL DO 13BASIL
Shooting on Goal Presidential hopeful Jose Serra's decision to choose a woman as running mate could spur other candidates to also pick a female. This could add sparkle to the campaign but it is doubtful. No one votes for vice-president. JOHN FITZPATRICK
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Brazilians have a lot to celebrate at the moment. Firstly, we have gained our first saint, proclaimed by the Pope himself in a ceremony at the Vatican, attended by President Fernando Henrique Cardoso (a future saint himself?) and various political attention seekers. The fact that the saint, Madre Paul ina, was born in Italy is not important as it is virtually impossible to find anyone in southern Brazil whose granny was not Italian. Secondly, Brazil will soon be in action in the World Cup finals. Although the team is not as good as one would wish (thanks to the coach's spiteful decision to leave out brilliant bad boy Romario) it should coast through the first round against minnows like Turkey, Costa Rica and China. Unfortunately these games will take place at unearthly hours like 3:30 a.m. and 6 p.m., but patriotic Brazilians will set their alarms clocks and support the ir team through bleary eye's. Thirdly, the World Cup will distract attention from the goings on of our political masters in the run-up to the presidential elections. Even at peak viewingtime few Brazilians will be cheering on any of the would-be presidents. The presidential campaign has become like a boring novela (soap opera), which appears every night but no one watches any more. Even when the plot is spiced up a bit— with a bit of glamour and corruption—it makes no difference to the ratings. Let's look at glamour and corruption in terms of the government's preferred candidate, former Health MinisterJose Serra. Glamour entered late last month in the shape of
Congresswoman Rita Camata who was named as Serra's running mate. Not only is she good-looking and a million times more photogenic than Serra, she has a good legislative track record, too. But does anyone really care? After all, she was Serra's third choice—perhaps fourth if you believe some reports that he favored Senator Pedro Simon, but was overruled by President Fernando Henrique Cardoso. The first choice, Pernambuco State Governor Jarbas Vasconcelos, retreated earlier this year, scared that Serra would not improve his abysmal opinion poll ratings. The second, House Representative Henrique Eduardo Alves from Rio Grande do Norte, was ditched after allegations that he had money stashed away in undeclared bank accounts abroad. Even Ms Camata expressed little public enthusiasm when her name was put forward. In constitutional terms the vice-presidency is very important and two recent vice-presidents—Jose Sarney and Itamar Franco—became full presidents due to the respective death and resignation of the bosses, Tancredo Neves and Fernando Collor. However, during Cardoso's less dramatic mandates the vice-president has become almost invisible. Probably most electors could not even namethe incumbent, Marco Maciel. Serra's decision could spur the PT candidate, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, to pick a female running mate. This could add a bit of much-needed sparkle to the campaign but it is doubtful. No one votes for vicepresident. Introducing corruption has also done nothing to boost the ratings. Early May, the magazine Veja brought up Serra's name in a report alleging that a former director of the state-owned Banco do Brasil, who was close to Serra, had demanded payment from a businessman to pay for earlier political campaigns. For almost a week the media was in a feeding frenzy, but what was Serra's response? He waved it aside with a few curt dismissBRAZZ IL - MAY 2002