Biography reveals brilliant career in Minas Gerais and Brazil.

Born in Bahia on his birth certificate, Itamar became one of the most prominent and talked-about politicians from Minas Gerais in recent decades. He emerged nationally in the 1989 presidential election as Fernando Collor de Mello's running mate. He ended up assuming the Presidency of the Republic after the impeachment of the former governor of Alagoas. Even among his most critical voices, Itamar was usually recognized for his ethical integrity. He always demanded equal recognition for the legacy of national stability: economic stability, with the launch of the Real Plan during his government; and political stability, with the transition after the disastrous end of the Collor administration.

Itamar was born on June 28, 1930, aboard a coastal ship, at sea between Rio de Janeiro and Salvador. His mother, Dona Itália Cautier, had been widowed by Augusto César Stiebler Franco shortly before her son's birth and registered him in the capital of Bahia, where an uncle lived. But Itamar grew up and developed a taste for politics in Juiz de Fora (MG), the origin of his family.

A civil engineer, he graduated in 1955 and that same year entered politics by joining the Brazilian Labour Party (PTB). He unsuccessfully attempted to be elected city councilor in 1958 and vice-mayor in 1962. He achieved his first public office – the city mayoralty – five years later, already affiliated with the former MDB after the 1964 military coup and the establishment of the two-party system. He remained in the municipal executive branch until 1971. The following year, he won another term as mayor, but in 1974 he resigned and was elected senator for Minas Gerais.

Already in the PMDB, after the reestablishment of multi-party politics, Itamar was re-elected for another term as senator in 1982, on the ticket that brought Tancredo Neves to the government of Minas Gerais. In 1986, he left the PMDB and joined the PL to run for governor of Minas Gerais. He ended up being defeated precisely by the PMDB member Newton Cardoso, who had closed the doors to him in his former party.

Itamar returned to the Senate, participated in the work of the Constituent Assembly, but before the end of his term he accepted the invitation of the then young governor of Alagoas, Fernando Collor de Mello, to be his running mate in the winning presidential campaign of 1989. The senator from Minas Gerais then left the PL to join the obscure National Reconstruction Party (PRN). But disagreements with Collor began even during the campaign. So much so that the presidential candidate reportedly requested a consultation with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) to find out if he could change his vice-presidential candidate.

With Collor's impeachment, Itamar formally assumed the Presidency in December 1992. He had already left the PRN party and increasingly sought to accentuate his differences with the former president, who was beset by a succession of corruption allegations. In office, Itamar proposed a policy of national understanding, but his administration faltered in the selection of his top-level staff, where he had brought in former colleagues from Juiz de Fora. For this reason, his government became known as the "republic of cheese bread".

For political scientists, however, the crucial moment of Itamar's government came with the arrival of Fernando Henrique Cardoso at the Ministry of Finance, when the implementation of the Real Plan began, resulting in the country's economic stability. "Itamar was an erratic figure; his success was in calling on Fernando Henrique Cardoso," assesses Carlos Ranulfo, professor of Political Science at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). For Rubem Barboza Filho, of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF), Itamar demonstrated in this episode "enormous political calculation." "A gamble that only a daring politician could make," he observed.

The success of the economic plan would propel FHC's election that year, and Itamar received as a reward the Brazilian embassies in Portugal and the Organization of American States (OAS). But his dream was to return to the Palácio do Planalto (Presidential Palace). He felt betrayed when Congress approved reelection and broke political ties with his former minister in 1998. Itamar accused Fernando Henrique of interfering in the extraordinary PMDB convention, which deprived him of the chance to run for President that year.

After serving in the government of Minas Gerais, Itamar remained active in national politics and, affiliated with the PPS party, he was elected senator last year, in a campaign that featured a strong presence from Aécio Neves.