Brazilian presidential election, 1955

Last updated March 16, 2019

Presidential elections were held in Brazil on 3 October 1955.^[1] The result was a victory for Juscelino Kubitschek, who received 35.7% of the vote. Voter turnout was 59.7%.^[2]

Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At 8.5 million square kilometers and with over 208 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area and the fifth most populous. Its capital is Brasília, and its most populated city is São Paulo. The federation is composed of the union of the 26 states, the Federal District, and the 5,570 municipalities. It is the largest country to have Portuguese as an official language and the only one in the Americas; it is also one of the most multicultural and ethnically diverse nations, due to over a century of mass immigration from around the world.

Juscelino Kubitschek President of Brazil

Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira, known also by his initials JK, was a prominent Brazilian politician who served as the 21st President of Brazil from 1956 to 1961. His term was marked by economic prosperity and political stability, being most known for the construction of a new capital, Brasília.

Background

After the suicide of Getúlio Vargas, his Vice President João Café Filho took office. Prior to Vargas' death, Brazil was living a time of intense political division, with the right-wing opposition National Democratic Union (UDN), high-level military officers and the mass media openly trying to depose him following the attempted assassination of right-wing journalist Carlos Lacerda, allegedly ordered by Vargas.

Getúlio Dornelles Vargas was a Brazilian lawyer and politician, who served as President during two periods: the first was from 1930–1945, when he served as interim president from 1930–1934, constitutional president from 1934–1937, and dictator from 1937–1945. After being overthrown in a 1945 coup, Vargas returned to power as the democratically elected president in 1951, serving until his suicide in 1954. Vargas led Brazil for 18 years, the longest of any President, and second in Brazilian history only to Emperor Pedro II among heads of state. He favored nationalism, industrialization, centralization, social welfare and populism – for the latter, Vargas won the nickname "The Father of the Poor". Vargas is one of a number of populists who arose during the 1930s in Latin America, including Lazaro Cardenas and Juan Perón, who promoted nationalism and pursued social reform. He was a proponent of workers' rights as well as a staunch anti-communist.

The National Democratic Union was a political party that existed in Brazil between 1945 and 1965. It was ideologically aligned with conservatism. During most of its existence, it was the country's second-strongest party. Its symbol was an Olympic torch and its motto was "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance", a quote falsely attributed to Thomas Jefferson.

Carlos Frederico Werneck de Lacerda was a Brazilian journalist and politician.

Juscelino Kubitschek, then Governor of Minas Gerais and a member of the pro-Vargas Social Democratic Party (PSD) announced his candidacy and built an alliance with the popular left-wing populist João Goulart of Vargas' Brazilian Labour Party (PTB), who was Vargas' former Minister of Labour and personal friend and who became cherished by the workers after granting a 100% increase in the minimum wage. A PSD-PTB coalition was then formed, with Kubitscheck as the presidential candidate and Goulart as his running mate.

Minas Gerais is a state in the north of Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte, is a major urban and finance center in Latin America, and the sixth largest municipality in Brazil, after the cities of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Brasilia and Fortaleza, but its metropolitan area is the third largest in Brazil with just over 5,500,000 inhabitants, after those of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Nine Brazilian presidents were born in Minas Gerais, the most of any state.

João Belchior Marques Goulart was a Brazilian politician who served as the 24th President of Brazil until a military coup d'état deposed him on April 1, 1964. He is considered the last left-wing President of Brazil until Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office in 2003.

The Brazilian Labour Party was a centre-left populist political party in Brazil founded in 1945 by supporters of President Getúlio Vargas. It was dismantled by the military after 1964 coup d'état.

The UDN, which wanted to do a more moderate and centrist image launched the candidacy of Juarez Távora, an old military officer. The party formed a multi-party coalition in order to defeat the PSD-PTB coalition, a coalition which included the Republican Party and the Christian Democratic Party.

The Republican Party was a political party in Brazil. The PR was founded by former President of Brazil Artur Bernardes in 1945 and operated almost solely in Minas Gerais. The successor of the Mineiro Republican Party, which dominated politics in Minas Gerais during the República Velha. The party won 3.67% of the vote in the 1945 elections.

The Christian Democratic Party was a political party in Brazil founded in 1945. The PDC, a small party supporting traditional Christian values, never achieved electoral success and was banned by the military dictatorship in 1965.

The Social Progressive Party (PSP) candidate was its leader, the populist former São Paulo Governor Adhemar de Barros. The PSP had supported Vargas in 1950, helping him win, but Adhemar was known to have presidential ambitions of his own.

The Progressive Social Party was a populist, conservative political party in Brazil between 1946 and 1965, led by Adhemar de Barros. The result of a merger between smaller parties, it was, in practice, the fourth largest party after the Social Democratic Party, the National Democratic Union and the Brazilian Labour Party in the 1947-1965 era. João Café Filho, the Vice President of Getúlio Vargas and later President after Vargas committed suicide. It was extremely strong in the State of São Paulo, under the leader of Adhemar de Barros, who held the office of Governor and Mayor of São Paulo during this period, besides being a candidate for president in 1960, winning over 20% of the vote. Like all parties of the 1947-1965 era, it was abolished by the military government.

Populism is a range of political approaches that deliberately appeal to "the people", often juxtaposing this group against the "elite". There is no single definition of the term, which developed in the 19th century and has been used to mean various things since that time. In Europe, few politicians or political groups describe themselves as "populist" and in political discourse the term is often applied to others pejoratively. Within political science and other social sciences, various different definitions of populism have been used, although some scholars propose rejecting the term altogether.

São Paulo is one of the 26 states of the Federative Republic of Brazil and is named after Saint Paul of Tarsus. As the richest Brazilian state and a major industrial complex, often dubbed the "locomotive of Brazil", the state is responsible for 33.9% of the Brazilian GDP. São Paulo also has the second highest Human Development Index (HDI) and GDP per capita, the fourth lowest infant mortality rate, the third highest life expectancy, and the third lowest rate of illiteracy among the federative units of Brazil, being by far, the safest state in the country. The homicide rate is 3.8 per 100 thousand as of 2018, almost 1/4 of the Brazilian rate. São Paulo alone is richer than Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia combined. If São Paulo were an independent country, its nominal GDP would be ranked among the top 20 in the world. The economy of São Paulo State is the most developed in Brazil.

Also on the right, Plínio Salgado of the minor Party of Popular Representation (PRP) ran for President. Salgado was known for being the leader of Brazilian Integralism in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Integralismo was a far right movement described as a Brazilian branch of fascism.

Plínio Salgado was a Brazilian politician, writer, journalist, and theologian. He founded and led Brazilian Integralist Action, a political party inspired by the Fascist regimes of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler.

The Party of Popular Representation was a political party in Brazil. The PRP was founded by Plínio Salgado on September 26, 1945. He reassembled the former members of the Brazilian Integralism, and was ideologically aligned with the nationalist right. It always obtained representation in the Brazilian Congress and had a greater presence in the south. Salgado ran for President of Brazil in the 1955 election, won by Juscelino Kubitschek. He won around 8% of the vote.

Brazilian integralism was a fascist, nationalist and catholic political movement in Brazil, created in October 1932. Founded and led by Plínio Salgado, a literary figure who was somewhat famous for his participation in the 1922 Modern Art Week, the movement had adopted some characteristics of European mass movements of those times, specifically of Italian Fascism, but distancing itself from Nazism because Salgado himself did not support racism. Despite the movement's slogan "Union of all races and all peoples", some militants held anti-Semitic views. The name of the party created to support its doctrine was Brazilian Integralist Action. The reference to Integralism mirrored a traditionalist movement in Portugal, the Lusitanian Integralism. For its symbol, the AIB used a flag with a white disk on a royal blue background, with an uppercase sigma (Σ) in its center.

During the campaign, Luís Carlos Prestes, leader of then illegal Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) recommended the tactical vote for the Kubitschek-Goulart ticket, an incident which increased the communist denunciations of the UDN and the media against the PSD-PTB campaign.

Candidates

Governor Juscelino Kubitschek of Minas Gerais (PSD)
Former Agriculture Minister Juarez Távora of Ceará (UDN)
Former Governor Adhemar de Barros of São Paulo (PSP)
Plínio Salgado (PRP)

Results

President

Candidate	Party	Votes	%
Juscelino Kubitschek	Social Democratic Party	3,077,582	35.7
Juarez Távora	National Democratic Union	2,610,534	30.3
Adhemar de Barros	Social Progressive Party	2,222,897	25.8
Plínio Salgado	Party of Popular Representation	714,353	8.3
Invalid/blank votes		471,085	–
Total		9,097,014	100
Registered voters/turnout		15,243,246	59.7
Source: Nohlen

Vice-President

Candidate	Party	Votes	%
João Goulart	Brazilian Labour Party-Social Democratic Party	3,591,267	44.26
Milton Campos	National Democratic Union	3,383,525	41.70
Danton Coelho	Social Progressive Party	1,139,153	14.04
Total		8,113,945	100

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References

↑ Nohlen, D (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume II, p173 ISBN 978-0-19-928358-3
↑ Nohlen, p232

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[N1-1] Nohlen, D (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume II, p173 ISBN 978-0-19-928358-3

[2] Nohlen, p232

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