The Senate's 61–20 vote on 31 August 2016 to remove Rousseff from office meant that Temer succeeded her and served out the remainder of her second term. In his first speech in office, Temer called for a government of "national salvation" and asked for the trust of the Brazilian people.[2] He also signaled his intention to overhaul the pension system and labor laws, and to curb public spending.[3]
A 2017 poll showed that Temer's administration had 7% popular approval, with 76% of respondents in favor of his resignation.[4] Despite widespread protests, Temer refused to step down.[5] He did not stand for reelection as president in the2018 Brazilian general election and was succeeded byJair Bolsonaro.
Born inTietê, São Paulo, Temer is the son of Nakhoul "Miguel" Elias Temer Lulia and March Barbar Lulia,Maronite CatholicLebanese immigrants who came to Brazil in 1925.[6][7] His parents, along with three older siblings, immigrated to Brazil fromBtaaboura, a small village in northernLebanon, to escapefamine andinstability due toWorld War I. In Brazil, his parents had five more children, and Temer is the youngest. Temer is not fluent inArabic, but is able to discern the topic of a conversation in that language.[8][9][10]
As a child, Temer dreamed of becoming apianist. However, there were no piano teachers in his city.[11] As a teenager, he wanted to be a writer.[12] After failing chemistry and physics classes in his first year of high school, he gave up the "curso científico", which prioritized hard sciences and math. In 1957, he moved toSão Paulo to finish high school in the "curso clássico", composed mainly of subjects in the humanities and languages.
In 1959, like his four older brothers he joined theLaw School of the University of São Paulo, graduating in 1963.[13] In his freshman year, he became involved with politics by becoming a treasurer of the school'sstudents' union. In 1962, Temer ran for the presidency of the union, but was defeated by 82 votes.[13]
Vice president Temer receives the "judicial merit medal", October 2013
In 1968, Temer began teachingconstitutional law atPUC-SP, where he also taughtcivil law and was director of the postgraduate department and of the Brazilian Institute Of Constitutional Law as well as a member of the Ibero-American Institute of Constitutional Law.
Temer published four major works in constitutional law. His most famous book isElements of Constitutional Law, published in 1982, which sold over 240,000 copies.[14] The book focuses on the organization of the Brazilian state, especially on theseparation of powers.
His 2006 bookDemocracy and Citizenship highlighted the relevance of law and included some of his speeches as a federal deputy. In his works, he showed himself to be a supporter ofparliamentarism and apolitical recall system, while opposingeconomic interventionism and tax increases.[15]
However, he considered himself a writer only in 2013, when he publishedAnonymous Intimacy, a book of poems. It consists of 120 poems, many of which were written on napkins during his plane trips between São Paulo andBrasílla.[15] Temer said writing poems helped him recover from the "barren arena of legislative politics".[16]
Michel Temer being awarded the legislative merit medal, November 2015
In 2016, he was accused of having a lobbyist bribe others between 1997 and 2001 in ethanol deals through state-run oil companyPetrobras. He was also under investigation for accepting more than $1.5 million in funds from construction companyCamargo Correa, which works with Petrobras. Spreadsheets from the construction company listed Temer's name 21 times. The numbers next to his name added up to $345,000, which authorities alleged were bribes and which Temer said were legal campaign contributions.[20][21] The claim was dismissed by the courts, and Temer denied any wrongdoing.[20] Temer has also been accused of electoral fraud; in 2016, he allegedly solicited $2.9m in illegal campaign donations in 2014. Part of investigation is into whether bribe money helped fund the 2014 campaign that saw Dilma Rousseff re-elected president with Temer as her running mate; Temer also denies this.[22]
In 2017 Brazil's federal police said that investigators have found evidence the president received bribes to help businesses. A released video made by investigators shows Rodrigo Rocha Loures, former Temer aide, carrying a suitcase filled with about $150,000 in cash allegedly being sent fromJBS S.A. to the president.[23]
In 2018, Brazilian Supreme Court Justice ordered Temer be included in an ongoing investigation into $3.07 million in illicit funds his Brazilian Democratic Party allegedly received from construction firm Odebrecht.[24]
According toleaked diplomatic cables, Temer provided information to the U.S. Embassy in Brazil in 2006. Temer is described as gaining the loyalty of lower class Brazilians by strengthening social programs and opposing Lula da Silva. The report has the status "sensitive but unclassified" with Temer stating that Lula da Silva "might finally begin to heed his friends on the left" and would "be led away from the orthodox macro-economic policies that have dominated his first term".[25]
Role in the impeachment process against Dilma Rousseff
In 2015 and 2016, Temer was involved in controversy asDilma Rousseff's impeachment process unfolded. In December 2015, Temer sent a letter to the president complaining about his distance from government decisions. The letter began with the Latin proverb "Verba Volant, Scripta Manent" (spoken words fly, written words remain). Temer described the communication as a "personal" unburdening about various complaints against the president. He said Rousseff had made him look like a "decorative" vice president, not an active one, despite having been invited to support her government several times in the dialogue with Congress, a role he only accepted in 2015.
President Dilma Rousseff delivers herinaugural address as Vice President Temer and wife Marcela look on, 1 January 2011
The letter was commented on and mocked in Brazilian social media, with images depicting the vice president as a Christmas decoration, making fun of his use of Latin, and photos purporting to show the president laughing as she read the missive, among many other things. The president's office had no immediate comment on the images,[26] but Rousseff condemned him as a traitor to her administration.[27]
In April 2016, an audio file of Temer was leaked to the media. In it, Temer speaks as if the impeachment process had already ended and he was the newpresident.[28] "I don't want to generate false expectations," Temer said on the recordings, which were first published byFolha de S.Paulo on 23 May. "Let's not think that a possible change in government will solve everything in three or four months."
The leak came just hours before a special lower house committee was scheduled to vote whether to back the request to impeach the president, generating complaints and accusations of treachery and lack of support from a vice president conspiring against the elected president. Temer alleged it was sent incorrectly to aWhatsApp group of his party's representatives in Congress.
After a Supreme Court judge, Justice Mello, ruled Cunha's actions wrong, he suggested that Temer should face impeachment proceedings.[29] Another attempt toimpeach Temer[30] began with the decision on 6 April 2016, by thepresident of the Chamber of Deputies,Eduardo Cunha, to form a commission for termination analysis of liability for crime offered by attorney Mariel M. Marra. Four other requests for impeachment were presented to Cunha.[31]
Cunha, who was third in line for the presidency behind Temer, faced scrutiny for alleged money laundering uncovered inOperation Car Wash.[29] On 5 May 2016, Cunha was suspended as speaker of the lower house by Brazil's Supreme Court due to allegations that he attempted to intimidate members of Congress, and obstructed investigations into his alleged receipt of bribes.[32][33]
In the early hours of 12 May 2016, the Federal Senate voted to accept Rousseff's impeachment. Per the Brazilian Constitution, Rousseff's powers were suspended and Temer became acting president. Temer was to serve as acting president for up to 180 days while the Senate decided whether to convict Rousseff and remove her from office, which would make Temer president for the remainder of her term, or to acquit her ofcrimes of responsibility charges and restore her presidential powers. Temer was awaiting a decision from the Supreme Federal Court to start animpeachment process against him.
On his first day as acting president, Vice President Temer appointed a new cabinet, reducing the number of ministries from 32 to 23.[35] Women's rights and Afro-Brazilian rights activists criticized the fact that all of the appointed ministers were white men, for the first time since 1979.[36][37]
On 2 June 2016, Temer received an eight-year ban from running for office after being convicted of violating election laws. This effectively ended any chance of Temer running for a full term as president inthe 2018 election.[38] It can be argued that he was already ineligible to run in 2018 in any event. Under theConstitution, the vice president becomes acting president whenever the president travels abroad. Due to the manner in which the Constitution's provisions on term limits are worded, whenever a vice president serves as acting president for any reason, it counts toward the limit of two consecutive terms.[citation needed]
On 30 June 2016, Temer sanctioned law 13303, which became known asLei das Estatais ("State-owned enterprises law"), which sought to improve governance and control of Brazilian SOEs after thecrisis of the Rousseff government, which sawPetrobras lose almost 90% of itsmarket cap.[39][40] Under the new law, a series of measures were introduced to improve the transparency of SOEs as well as appointed council members and directors being required to have professional experience in the SOE's field.[39][41]
On 31 August 2016, the Senate voted to convict Rousseff, thereby removing her from office and making Temer President of Brazil. He would serve out the balance of Rousseff's second term, which finished on 31 December 2018.[43] The vice-president position then became vacant, with thePresident of the Chamber of Deputies (at the timeRodrigo Maia) acting as the first constitutional substitute during his term.[44]
In October 2016, theConstitution of Brazil was amended by deputies[45] to cap public spending, effectively frozen for twenty years, adjusted for inflation only. This measure was the subject of both praise and criticism among the Brazilian middle-class.[46]
In November 2016,Marcelo Calero, Temer's formerMinister of Culture, resigned, stating that Temer had pressured him to help an ally, government secretaryGeddel Vieira Lima, who had invested in a development that was being delayed by a heritage preservation measure by allowing construction to go ahead in spite of said measure. Vieira Lima resigned on 25 November 2016, and opposition leaders stated that they would seek President Temer's impeachment over this incident.[47] Temer denied the corruption allegations but admitted talking to Calero about the project.[48]
In March 2017, Temer decided to move to thevice presidential residence again. He had recent problems with the Brazilian Historical Heritage Institute due to the architectural changes he made to thePresidential Palace.[50][51] In an interview to the Brazilian news magazineVeja he mentioned he could not sleep in the "ample rooms" and questioned the possibility of ghosts.[52][53][54][55][56][57]
On 28 April 2017,trade unions called for ageneral strike against the pension and labor reforms proposed in his government,[58] which saw shutdowns of various public services in state capitals and major cities.[59] The government announces the abolition of "popular pharmacies" for the summer of 2017. Created in 2004 under the presidency ofLula, they allowed the most disadvantaged to obtain low-cost medicines.[60]
On 16 February 2018, Temersigned a law aimed at tackling the organised crime element in Rio de Janeiro, transferring full control of security to the military. The military will reportedly remain in control of security until 1 January 2019.[61] The next day, Temer suggested establishing a Ministry of Public Security in the near future.[62]
According to data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, extreme poverty increased by 11 per cent in 2017, while inequalities also increased again (the Gini index rose from 0.555 to 0.567). The reduction in the number of Bolsa Família beneficiaries decided by the government is the main cause, according to the study.[63]
On 17 May 2017, secretly taped recordings leaked byO Globo, a leading national newspaper, reveal the President discussing hush money pay-offs withJoesley Batista, the businessman who runs the country's biggest meat-packing firmJBS,[64][65][66][67] prompting talk of trying again to impeach him.[68][69]On Wednesday 24 May 2017, while thousands of angry demonstrators marched towards Congress demanding Temer's resignation and immediate direct presidential elections, Temer sought to suppress a revolt within his own party.[70][71]
Overwhelmed by protests, Temer deployed federal troops to the capital.[72][73] Many photographs and testimonials taken during the protest show police violence, and officers shooting at demonstrators during the demonstration.[74] President Temer's refusal to resign made him increasingly unpopular and provoked not only a political stalemate but also uncertainty, plunging the country into crisis and amplifying the worst recession in its history.[5][75][76]
On 9 June 2017, the BrazilianSuperior Electoral Court voted 4–3 to acquit Temer and Rousseff of alleged illegal campaign funding in the 2014 election, thus allowing him to stay in office.[77][78] FormerOdebrecht Vice President Marcio Faria da Silva said in testimony given as part of a plea bargain that Temer asked him at a meeting to arrange a $40 million payment to Temer's party, the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB). Faria said he met with Temer at his law office, and that speaker of the lower houseEduardo Cunha and CongressmanHenrique Eduardo Alves were also present. The payment represented a 5% commission on a contract Odebrecht was seeking with the state-run oil company Petrobras, Faria said. Supreme Court Justice Luiz Edson Fachin made this and other testimony public, and ordered an investigation of more than 100 politicians implicated in bribes and kickbacks at state-run companies, particularly Petrobras.[79]
On 26 June 2017, Temer was charged by Prosecutor-GeneralRodrigo Janot with accepting bribes and Janot delivered the charges to theSupreme Federal Court.[80] The lower house was required to vote on the charges, which stemmed from allegations that he took $5 million in return for clearing up JBS tax problems and facilitating a loan. At the time, Temer still had the support of speaker of the lower houseRodrigo Maia, who possessed the power to accept or shelve a petition for impeachment.
TheFederal Police (PF), who were forced by funding restrictions to disband before all investigations into the matter were complete, had recommended that Temer also be charged with obstruction of justice.[4][80][81]Torquato Jardim, who was Temer's third Justice Minister in 2017, had unsuccessfully attempted to change the leadership of the PF, and to implement a series of legislative initiatives focused on amnesty and changes to the code of criminal procedure.[82]
In June 2017 Temer's approval rating stood at 7%, the lowest for any President of Brazil in more than thirty years.[4] In a survey conducted by theIBOPE institute, between 24 and 26 July 81% of Brazilians favored the indictment of the President.[83]On 2 August, lawmakers in the lower house in Congress voted not to refer the case against the scandal-plagued President to the supreme court, which had the power to try him. Observers stated that the move to shield Temer further undermined the credibility of Brazil's political and electoral system.[84][85][86]
On 22 August 2017, Temer issued a decree to dissolve the "Reserva Nacional do Cobre e Associados" (Renca)Amazonian reserve in Brazil's northern states ofPará andAmapá, measuring 4 million hectares to allow mining by private companies and the conversion of forest into crops for agro-business companies.[89] After widespread criticism, the decree was revoked on 26 September.[90]
In anIbope survey in September 2016, after approximately a month of President Temer's administration, 39% of Brazilians rated his administration "bad or terrible", while 14% considered it "great or good". 2,002 people were heard between 20 and 25 September, and the margin of error was two percentage points.[96]
Temer and his first wife Maria Célia Toledo had three daughters: Luciana (1969), Maristela (1972), and Clarissa (1974). Temer is also father to Eduardo (born in 1999 inLondon) with journalist Érica Ferraz.[99][100]
In 2002, Temer metMarcela Tedeschi (born 1983), who was attending the annual political convention of theBrazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) with her uncle Geraldo, aPaulínia municipal employee.[101] They married on 26 July 2003, in a small ceremony.[102] In 2009, Marcela graduated with a law degree fromFadisp, a private school inSão Paulo. In an interview, Marcela said she never took the licensing exam because of the birth of the couple's son Michel, also known by his nickname "Michelzinho".[103][104]
^Ceolin, Adriano; Motta, Severino (11 June 2010)."Agora com Dilma, Temer quase foi vice de Serra" [Now with Dilma, Temer was almost Serra's vice president].Último Segundo (in Brazilian Portuguese).Brasília.Archived from the original on 8 December 2014. Retrieved22 January 2017.
^abCantanhéde, Eliane (1 November 2010)."Líder do PMDB, Temer terá mais força que vices de FHC e de Lula" [As leader of the PMDB, Temer has more power than the vice presidents of Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Lula].Folha de S.Paulo (in Portuguese). Grupo Folha.Archived from the original on 19 September 2016.
^Gurovitz, Helio (25 July 2017)."O futuro incerto da Lava Jato" [The Uncertain Future of Lavo Jato].G1 (in Portuguese). Grupo Globo. Retrieved25 July 2017.
^Linhares, Juliana (18 April 2016)."Marcela Temer: bela, recatada e "do lar"" [Marcela Temer: beautiful, modest and “homely”].Veja (in Brazilian Portuguese).Archived from the original on 20 April 2016. Retrieved16 May 2016.
"Vice-Presidente".Presidéncia da República Federativa do Brasil (in Portuguese). Archived fromthe original on 28 February 2014. Official biography and portrait as Vice President
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