Who was Itamar Franco?
Itamar Franco was born in 1930, most likely on a ship off the Bahia coast, and was raised in Juiz de Fora in Minas Gerais. He trained as an engineer there and won the mayor's office in 1966 for the opposition party MDB. He entered the Senate in 1975 and ran as Fernando Collor's deputy in 1989. When Collor was suspended in October 1992, Franco became acting president, and he took the full office when Collor resigned that December. His government held a 1993 vote on how Brazil should be governed and, with Fernando Henrique Cardoso as finance minister, put the Real Plan in place. He later served as governor of Minas Gerais and returned to the Senate. He died in 2011.
Political views
- In 1991 he attacked the sale of the profitable steel firm Usiminas, saying privatization weakened the Brazilian state.Source: www18.fgv.br
- In 1994 his government brought in the Real Value Unit, a bridge to the new currency, along with tighter budgets.Source: planalto.gov.br
- In April 1993 he organized the national vote in which Brazilians chose to keep the republic and the presidential system.Source: planalto.gov.br
- As governor, in January 1999 he suspended Minas Gerais's payments on its debt to the federal government for 90 days.Source: www18.fgv.br
- He also fought the federal plan to privatize the power company Furnas.Source: www18.fgv.br
- In 2009 he joined the center-left PPS, and in 2010 voters sent him back to the Senate.Source: www18.fgv.br
Legacy
Franco is best remembered as the president under whom the Real Plan began. It cut inflation from several thousand percent a year to single digits within a few years, and the real is still Brazil's currency. Admirers praise his personal honesty and the calm he brought after Collor's fall. Critics found him moody and hard to predict, and they point to his many cabinet changes. Some economists give most of the credit for the Real to Cardoso's team. His break with Cardoso later on, and the 1999 debt freeze, were blamed for rattling markets in a currency crisis, though supporters saw a defense of the states against Brasília.