After , and seven more periods between the transitional regime and the provisional government, he began to suffer pressure from various political sectors, and especially from , to resign as President of the Republic in 1945.
Despite his desire to remain in power, he needed it in the face of open opposition. He tried to have control over the transition to a new regime, without success, and sought to take advantage of queerism, a movement he called for.
The then president’s intentions came up against internal divisions within the Vargas regime, with different interests in the elections. This explains the contradiction between unwilling resignation and .
According to Getúlio’s documents deposited at the CPDOC (Center for Research and Documentation), of FGV (Fundação Getúlio Vargas), he wanted to obtain a new presidential mandate, with a non-competitive election — without opposition or with electoral fraud.
The idea was to restrict participation by controlling who could vote — which would prevent the opposition from articulating, in local politics, the qualification of voters.
This plan did not have the support of the entire Estado Novo leadership and ended up being dehydrated. At the time, some sectors of the government were already discussing candidacies such as those of Oswaldo Aranha, and Guerra, Eurico Gaspar Dutra. Brigadier Eduardo Gomes also emerged as a candidate for Catete, with more support among conservatives.
Fearing the articulation of the military, already on a collision course with the president, around Gomes, the government decided to launch the candidacy of Dutra, popular among the troops. The objective was to divide the support of members of the Forces. However, Getúlio did not embrace Dutra’s candidacy with enthusiasm.
The friction at the top of the Estado Novo went further. Oswaldo Aranha was seen as excessively liberal and close to the United States, a stance that generated divisions. While a wing of the government, including Dutra himself, was sympathetic to the Axis (the alliance of , and in the Second World War), Aranha encouraged alignment with the Allies (USA, United Kingdom and Soviet Union).
Seen with suspicion by the most conservative wing of the government, including by Dutra himself, more sympathetic to the Axis, the diplomat resigned from the Brazilian chancellery in 1944.
Away from Catete, he became closer to the founders of UDN, a party with a conservative tone. Due to his past with Getúlio, however, the former minister was unable to gain space in the new party. Thus, even though he was considered a natural candidate, he withdrew from the presidential race and ended up discreetly supporting Eduardo Gomes.
The internal division of the Estado Novo leadership also led to the creation of two parties, o and o. The first gained autonomy and his own life beyond Getúlio, while the second became more linked to the president.
The PSD’s autonomy in relation to the then president gave impetus to Dutra, who also bet on political independence.
Given the situation, Getúlio was unable to rebuild unity in the government and among the military. The Armed Forces, signaling that the president would undermine the electoral process, decided to unite to depose him and place, in his place, the then president of the (Supreme Federal Court) José Linhares.
In the same year of 1945, Dutra beat Eduardo Gomes. Getúlio was elected senator by and, at the same time, by , which was permitted by electoral rules.
Adriana Salay, professor in the history department at the University of São Paulo, cites the international context, with the post-war anti-fascist and democratic rhetoric, as a factor that contributed to the Estado Novo crisis.
“Participating in the war on the side of the Allies and, at the same time, maintaining one internally became contradictory and politically costly,” he says.
She states that Wantism had strength among urban workers and popular sectors, but came up against limits such as opposition from the military High Command.
Salay notes that, as the Estado Novo dictatorship weakened, Getúlio’s personal prestige grew. “Laborism was important precisely in this process, so that the former president could achieve political capital to return to the 1950s”, he states.
Christian Lynch, professor at Uerj (State University of Rio de Janeiro), states that Getúlio’s anchoring in the PTB distanced him from the conservative forces that supported him in the government. They began to view him with suspicion, which culminated in his deposition.
“As of 1943, Vargas already foresaw the need to reinvent himself as a mass leader, based on laborism”, says Lynch, who is also a researcher at the Casa de Rui Barbosa Foundation and a partner at the Brazilian Historical and Geographical Institute.
“His project was to convene a Constituent Assembly under his leadership and consolidate a regime of social democracy. The frustration stemmed precisely from the resistance of the elites and the military, who saw this project as a threat to their own control of the State”, he stated.
Dutra, symbolized, according to Lynch, a controlled transition, with the resumption of democracy without breaking with the conservative legacy of the previous regime, now represented by the PSD.
For the professor, the overthrow of Getúlio also consolidated the thought, among those in uniform, that the Armed Forces exercised moderating power in the country.
“This naturalization of the interventionist role of the Armed Forces paved the way for the 1964 coup. And, when it occurred, the political class still naively believed that the military would return power soon after — which, as we know, did not happen.”
