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1 Like Gorbachev, Brazil's ex-President Fernando Henrique Cardoso had a better reputation abroad than at home. In Brazil, he's despised for his privatizations, like state mining company Vale do Rio Doce, sold to a group of cronies for the equivalent of 1/4 of its annual profits

2 In the 2000s, Cardoso’s PSDB successor, José Serra—seen here faking an injury after being hit by a paper ball—adopted an electoral strategy called "anti-PTism": smearing PT leaders under an anti-corruption banner, with full U.S. media backing. What Serra, a former leftist who was exiled during the military dictatorship, didn't anticipate was how PSDB's tactics would be co opted by parties across the political spectrum, from PSOL, to the neofascist far right. Serra created a monster which spun out of control

I'm not claiming that there was no corruption among the thousands of elected PT officials, but even at the height of the anti-corruption which hunt of the 2000s, it barely cracked the 10 ten list of Brazil's most corrupt parties, way below Serra's PSDB.

In 2014, PSDB fielded Aecio Neves as its presidential candidate. A member of a traditional elite political family, he was dealing with dozens of corruption charges from his stint as Minas Governor, along with best known secrets in Brasilia regarding his alleged cocaine problem. Despite all the corruption, in 2014 an American celebrity "leftist" journalist in Brazil told a Brasilwire editor that there was an "unwritten rule among American journalists that Aecio had to win the election."

After losing the election in 2014, Neves pulled a Trump move and claimed the election had been stolen. He tried to sue the electoral courts, and working with his party and its allies, the PSDB paralyzed Congress. From that point forward, Dilma Rousseff couldn't pass a single law.

This point, between Neves paralysis of Congress and the coup against Rousseff saw the rise of a new political force. The weaponized anti-corruption rhetoric unleashed by the party was a traditional tool of fascism. The fascists appropriated it and attacked the PSDB as communists.

PSDB was never a nationally cohesive party. It was built around two big regional power bases in S. Paulo and Minas Gerais, with alliances with traditional political families elsewhere. When Neves career collapsed in a sea of corruption scandals, party focus shifted to S. Paulo.

João Doria, the millionaire playboy, ex-star of Brazil's Apprentice reality show franchise, and the man who, as Jose Sarney's Tourism Minister, put Brazil on the international sex tourism map, was elected mayor of S. Paulo City and prepared a run for governor

The PSDB reached its goal with Dilma Rousseff's ouster, only to see its dreams crumble amid the rise of neofascism. Doria—who, as Nathalia Urban once noted, embodied "São Paulo's preference for fascists who eat w/ knives and forks"—won the governorship by aligning with Bolsonaro.

As gov., Doria broke from Bolsonaro and fought the Minas Gerais PSDB faction, positioning himself for a presidential run. It flopped and wounded the party. Bolsonaristas no longer supported him. Leftists didn't forget his alliance with Bolsonaro. Ruined, he retired from politics.

From 1994 to 2014, the top two candidates in every presidential election were from PSDB and PT. PSDB tried to destroy the PT, but ended up destroying itself. Today's announcement of the merger, as reported here in Folha, is the end. I say good riddance.

The elections were to elect those who will reform the Constitution and also local offices.

The party of Argentine President Javier Milei came third in Sunday's elections in the province of Santa Fe, where the coalition of Governor Maximiliano Pullaro won in the opening of an electoral year with national legislative elections in October.

Santa Fe, to the north of Buenos Aires, elected this Sunday those who will reform its Constitution and also local offices. Sixteen months ago, the ultra-liberal Milei obtained there 62.8% of the votes in the ballot that led him to the presidency, but now his candidates reached 14%, according to provisional results.

The district is the third most important in Argentina and its electorate represents 8% of the electoral roll.

With 98.7% of the votes counted, Governor Maximiliano Pullaro, who headed the list of his political space, a coalition of the Unión Cívica Radical, Propuesta Republicana and Socialist parties, won with 34.6% of the votes.

He was followed by the candidate of the Justicialist Party (Peronist), Juan Monteverde, with 15.2%, according to the provisional scrutiny.

The local aspirant to the Constituent Convention of Milei's force La Libertad Avanza (LLA), the national deputy Nicolás Mayoraz, added 14.11% of the votes.

The beginning of the electoral calendar took place two days after the support given by the International Monetary Fund to the government program, with a loan of 20 billion dollars to strengthen the reserves, in the midst of an exchange crisis which forced the Central Bank to sell more than 1.8 billion dollars in two weeks.

The vote also took place after Milei announced the elimination of the exchange control as from this Monday, when a fluctuation of the value of the currency between bands of 1,000 to 1,400 pesos will be in force.

The head of the local public opinion consultant, Roque Cantoia, said that these elections do not represent “a plebiscite for the national government”, but the first stop in the race towards the national parliamentary elections of October 26.

“The national key lies in the fact that it is the first electoral instance since Milei is president, and it can give us an idea of the power that the brand has to transfer political flow”, said Cantoia, to underline that it was an election “without Milei on the ballot”.

The Argentine electoral schedule will continue on May 11 in the provinces of Salta, San Luis, Chaco and Jujuy, and on May 18 in the City of Buenos Aires.