The prime ministers of Brazil, officially called President of the Council of Ministers, were the parliamentarians who, during two periods in the political history of the country, directed the government in a parliamentary system. The first parliamentary experience began with emperor Pedro II in 1847, and was maintained during the last 42 years of the Empire of Brazil. The first de jure officeholder was Manuel Alves Branco, Viscount of Caravelas, who was sworn in on 20 July 1847 after the office was formally created by Decree No. 523. The prime ministers were appointed by the emperor of Brazil. Once chosen, it was up to them to form a cabinet.
The second occasion on which a parliamentary system was put into practice occurred during the government of president João Goulart, in 1961, due to a constitutional amendment approved by his opponents before the beginning of his term. This second parliamentary experience was short-lived, with the presidential system of government restored in a national plebiscite in 1963.
Between 1847 and 1889, the holder of the office was officially called "President of the Council of Ministers", being referred to by the press usually as "President of the Cabinet". According to the Political Constitution of the Empire of Brazil, the head of the Executive Power was the Emperor. [1] [2]
The position of President of the Council of Ministers was created by Decree No. 523 of 20 July 1847, and this parliamentary regime was never included in the Imperial Constitution. The ministerial offices that existed from 1840 to 1847 did not have a President of the council. The number of ministers was small by current Brazilian standards: there were six, and in 1860 the seventh ministry was created by Legislative Decree No. 1,067 of 28 July 1860, the Secretary of State for Agriculture, Commerce and Public Works. [3] [4]
The duration of the Cabinet depended on the support it had in the Chamber of Deputies and on the support of the Emperor. If the Chamber of Deputies were incompatible with the Cabinet, it was up to the Emperor to either dissolve the Cabinet or dissolve the Chamber. [5] There were, in all, 32 cabinets with the figure of the President of the Council of Ministers. [5]
The second parliamentary experience lasted from 8 September 1961 to 24 January 1963, therefore one year, four months and sixteen exact days (504 days), when João Goulart was President of Brazil. [6] After a plebiscite held in January 1963, the presidential regime was reestablished, which remains in the country to the present day. [7]
No. | Portrait | Prime Minister | Took office | Left office | Time in office | Party | President | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Tancredo Neves (1910–1985) | 8 September 1961 | 12 July 1962 | 307 days | PSD | João Goulart | ||
2 | Francisco Brochado da Rocha (1910–1962) | 12 July 1962 | 18 September 1962 | 68 days | PSD | João Goulart | ||
3 | Hermes Lima (1902–1978) | 18 September 1962 | 24 January 1963 | 128 days | PTB | João Goulart |
José Maria Pereira Neves is a Cape Verdean politician who is currently the president of Cape Verde, having previously served as the Prime Minister of Cape Verde from 2001 to 2016. He is a member of the African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV). In the 2021 presidential election, he was elected with 51.7% of votes, beating his nearest rival Carlos Veiga who got 42.4% of the total votes.
Politics of the Empire of Brazil took place in a framework of a quasi-federal parliamentary representative democratic monarchy, whereby the Emperor of Brazil was the head of state and nominally head of government although the Prime Minister, called President of the Council of Ministers, was effectively the de facto head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power was exercised by the government. Legislative power was vested in both the government and the two chambers of the General Assembly. The Judiciary was independent of the Executive and the Legislative. There was also a fourth power, the Moderating power, exercised by the emperor. The Empire of Brazil was divided into 20 provinces and the Neutral Municipality, capital of the country.
During its independent political history, Brazil has had seven constitutions. The most recent was ratified on October 5, 1988.
The Cabinet of Brazil, also called Council of Ministers or Council of Government, is composed of the Ministers of State and senior advisors of the executive branch of the federal government of Brazil. Cabinet officers are appointed and dismissed by the President. There are currently twenty-three Ministries, including six Ministry-level offices: the Chief of Staff, General-Secretariat of the Presidency, Secretariat of Institutional Relations, Secretariat of Social Communication, Personal Office of the President of the Republic and the Institutional Security Office. Other institutions also assists the Presidency.
Henrique de Campos Meirelles is a Brazilian manager and former Minister of Finance and an executive of the Brazilian and the international financial sectors and former president of Central Bank of Brazil where he remained in office from 2003 to 2011. He chairs J&F's board of directors, company that owns Banco Original, JBS and Vigor, among others. He is also a member of the board of directors of Azul Brazilian Airlines.
Historically, the political post of Prime Minister, officially called President of the Council of Ministers, existed in Brazil in two different periods: from 1847 to 1889 and from 1961 to 1963.
A constitutional referendum was held in Brazil on 6 January 1963 to determine the country's form of government. Voters were asked whether they approved of a constitutional amendment made in 1961 that transferred much of the president's power to the National Congress. The changes were rejected by the majority of voters, resulting in the choice of presidentialism, the end of the Parliamentary Republic established in 1961 and the restoration of the full powers of president João Goulart, also sworn in in 1961. The referendum's original date was April 1965, but it was brought forward.
João Belchior Marques Goulart, commonly known as Jango, was a Brazilian politician who served as the 24th president of Brazil until a military coup d'état deposed him on 1 April 1964. He was considered the last left-wing president of Brazil until Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office in 2003.
Manuel Alves Branco, the 2nd Viscount of Caravelas was a Brazilian politician, economist, and magistrate during the Empire of Brazil (1822–1889). He held the positions of general deputy, minister of justice, minister of finance, senator and was also the first de jure prime-minister of Brazil.
Events in the year 1961 in Brazil.
Armando de Queiroz Monteiro Filho was a Brazilian businessman, engineer and politician. He served as the country's Minister of Agriculture from 1961 until 1962, in the cabinet of President João Goulart. He was the father of Armando Monteiro, a politician, former national Senator from Pernambuco, and former Minister of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade.
João Vicente Fontella Goulart, also known as João Goulart Filho, is a Brazilian philosopher and politician.
The term "military apparatus" refers to a policy of appointing officers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during the government of João Goulart (1961-1964), consisting of favoring, in promotions and nominations to important commands, military officers considered reliable. It is considered the work of the head of the President's Military Cabinet, Argemiro de Assis Brasil, who, however, later denied its existence. The filling of the high commands with loyal officers was supposed to assure the president's mandate and was considered relevant both within the government and the opposition. However, it did not prevent the deposition of Goulart in the 1964 coup d'état, which was joined by members of the "apparatus", some of whom had participated in the preceding conspiracy.
With the 1964 Brazilian coup d'état, on April 2 the National Congress of Brazil declared the presidency of the Republic occupied by João Goulart vacant. Since the vacancy was foreseen for the president's departure from the country without the authorization of Congress, which was not the case, the act had no constitutional support. However, it formalized the coup, transferring the post to the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Ranieri Mazzilli, until the indirect election of General Castelo Branco, the first military president of the dictatorship (1964-1985), days later.
Nicolau Pereira de Campos Vergueiro, better known as Senator Vergueiro, was a Portuguese-born Brazilian coffee farmer and politician. He was a pioneer in the implementation of free workforce in Brazil by bringing the first European immigrants to work in the Ibicaba farm, which he owned. The contract was prepared by Vergueiro himself, establishing ownership of the production and other measures, mostly of an exploitive nature. Faced with this, the immigrants working in Vergueiro's main property, the Ibicaba farm, revolted under the guidance of Thomas Davatz, a Swiss immigrant and religious leader, who instigated the immigrant workers to grow their ambition to become small or medium-sized landowners, as they imagined they would be when they had left Europe.
Francisco Jê Acaiaba de Montezuma, first and only Viscount of Jequitinhonha, born Francisco Gomes Brandão, was a Brazilian jurist, diplomat and politician. He was a senator for the province of Bahia from 1851 to 1870, commanded two ministries during the regency of Diogo Antônio Feijó and was president of the Bank of Brazil.
Reverse parliamentarism was the political system in force in the Brazilian Empire during the Second Reign. This system consisted of the Conservative and Liberal parties alternating at the head of the executive branch, based on the choice of the Moderator.