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José Serra
	José Serra
	;
	Governor of São Paulo State
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; January 1, 2007
Preceded by	Cláudio Lembo
	Mayor of São Paulo
	In office; January 1, 2005 – March 31, 2006
Preceded by	Marta Suplicy
Succeeded by	Gilberto Kassab
Born	March 19, 1942 (age 67); São Paulo
Political party	PSDB

José Serra (Portuguese pronunciation: [ʒuˈzɛ ˈsɛʁɐ]; born March 19, 1942 in São Paulo) is a Brazilian politician, former secretary of state, congressman, senator, minister of Planning and Minister of Health, mayor of São Paulo and current Governor of São Paulo state.

[edit] Background

Born in 1942 to Italian parents, Francesco Serra and Serafina Chirico, Serra interrupted his studies in engineering at age 22 and left the country in 1964, after the coup that established the military dictatorship era in Brazil. Serra had come to the attention of the authorities having served as President of the National Student Union União Nacional dos Estudantes (UNE), while he was a 4th year engineering student at the Escola Politécnica of the University of São Paulo.

He was in exile from 1964 to 1978 in Chile, Argentina, and the United States. In Chile Jose Serra did his masters in Economics and taught Economics at the University. There he also married Monica Allende (1967), then a top ballerina at the National Ballet of Chile. They had two children, Veronica (1969) and Luciano (1973). In the United States Jose Serra did his Ph. D. in Economics at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) and later spent 2 years at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ.

On returning to Brazil after the political amnesty in 1978, Serra lectured economics at the University of Campinas, did research for Cebrap, and wrote for the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo.

[edit] Political career

In 1982 he was appointed São Paulo's State Secretary for Economics and Planning under Franco Montoro's governorship, and become the most influential secretary of Montoro's Government. In 1986 and 1990 he was elected and reelected a Congressman. In 1994 he was elected Senator for the State of São Paulo with more than 6.5 million votes.

His first bid for the mayorship of the City of São Paulo came in 1988 in an election won by PT's Luiza Erundina. He ran again in 1996, resigning his position as Minister of Planning in order to participate in the election for mayor, which was won by Celso Pitta. Pitta was the designated successor of mayor Paulo Maluf, who headed the right-wing populist Progressive Party PP. After having served again as a minister in the Federal Government, Serra ran for President on behalf of the PSDB party in 2002. He was beaten by four-time candidate and PT founder Luiz Inácio da Silva (Lula) in the 2nd round. Serra came back in the municipal elections of 2004. During his campaign, he signed a document committing not to leave the post of Mayor to run for Governor or President. He repeated his promisse on a TV debate and recommended his voters never to vote for him again if he didn't keep the promise. This time he was elected mayor of São Paulo, the largest city in Brazil, beating Mayor Marta Suplicy, who was running for re-election. One year later, he broke his promisse and ran for Governor.

In all elections in which he was a candidate since 1988 Serra represented the Party of the Brazilian Social Democracy (PSDB), which he helped found in 1988 alongside then former and future São Paulo State Governors Franco Montoro and Mario Covas and the future Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, out of a split arising in the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB). PSDB can be seen as a coalition of democrats, liberals and social democrats and enjoys a centrist outlook in comparison to its rival, the leftist Workers’ Party (PT) of current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Both parties enjoy large support in São Paulo state, but the state has been governed by PSDB since 1994.

Serra came to political prominence under Fernando Henrique Cardoso’s presidency (1994-2002) when he was appointed as Minister of Planning, and later as Minister of Health. During Serra's tenure in the Health Ministry, the generic drug industry, which gave wider access to medicaments to a poor population, and ANVISA, the Brazilian food and drug regulatory agency, were created. Also all form of tobacco advertising was banned, and cigarette packages were made to show pictures of diseases caused by smoking.

Serra was trying to be nominated as the PSDB candidate for President in the 2006 elections, but on March 14, 2006, he decided to run for Governor of the State of São Paulo instead, and resigned his post as Mayor breaking the promisse made during his campaign. He was elected and on January 1, 2007, he took office as the Governor of São Paulo State.

[edit] His role in Brazilian politics today

Serra was the presidential candidate of the incumbent PSDB party in 2002, when he lost the election to Lula. In 2004, he was elected Mayor of the city of São Paulo in the second round with 55% of the votes. In 2006, he ran for Governor of São Paulo state after signing a public commitment to stay fully at the term. He was elected in the first round with almost 60% of the votes.

Currently, even with the president Lula high popularity , Serra is the pre-presidential candidate for the 2010 presidential election with higher intention to vote in all research elections. Serra reaches an average of 40% of intended votes. The official candidate of Lula, Dilma Roussef, reaches only 17%.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: José Serra

São Paulo 2004 mayoral race pages
http://citymayors.com/mayors/saopaulo_mayor.html Profile on CityMayors.com

Political offices
Preceded by Marta Suplicy	Mayor of São Paulo 2005–2006	Succeeded by Gilberto Kassab
Preceded by Cláudio Lembo	Governor of São Paulo 2006—	Succeeded by incumbent
Party political offices
Preceded by Fernando Henrique Cardoso	PSDB Party presidential candidate 2002 (lost)	Succeeded by Geraldo Alckmin

Contents

[edit] Background

[edit] Political career

[edit] His role in Brazilian politics today

[edit] References

[edit] External links