Political opponents, the president (PT) and the governor of , (Republicans), have a common characteristic: they like to mention the former president of the Republic (1902-1976) in their speeches, evoking for themselves the positive image of one of the most popular presidents in the history of Brazil and who governed the country from 1956 to 1961.
70 years after his inauguration as the Presidency of the Republic, on January 31, 1956, the politician from Minas Gerais, whose government motto was “50 years in 5”, continues to be a source of inspiration for both right-wing and left-wing parties to try to attract the sympathy of the electorate. JK was elected by , a party that was born within Getulismo and which brought together political leaders such as Tancredo Neves and Ulysses Guimarães.
In 2022, during a rally in the city of Juiz de Fora (MG), then candidate Lula promised to do “40 years in 4” for the country, if he was elected that year. last August, during a seminar with businesspeople held in São Paulo, when he stated that Brazil needs a next government with the motto “grow 40 years in 4”.
The vice-president of the Republic, (), and the senators (-PI) and (PSD-MG) have also cited Juscelino as an example to be followed, both in the conduct of public administration and in the art of politics, far from ideological extremes. Before occupying the Presidency, JK was mayor of and governor of Minas Gerais, in administrations marked by administrative dynamism and political coalition.
Another presidential candidate for 2026, the governor of Goiás, compared himself to JK by promising, on several occasions, broad and unrestricted amnesty to those involved in the attempted coup d’état and the 8th of January. For Caiado, the general amnesty, which could benefit the former president (PL), would be a way of pacifying the country in the face of political polarization involving the left and right.
In 1955, unhappy with the defeat in that year’s presidential contest and alleging electoral fraud, something that was never proven, civil and military rebels, encouraged by the National Democratic Union (UDN), an opposition party led by Carlos Lacerda, attempted, in November, a coup to prevent the inauguration of Juscelino, who had been chosen in elections that took place normally.
The attempt did not go ahead thanks to the actions of the Minister of War at the time, General Henrique Teixeira Lott, who mobilized troops and placed tanks on the streets of Rio de Janeiro, then the federal capital, to guarantee the inauguration of the new president and democratic stability. The episode became known as the “preventive coup”.
Another military rebellion to depose the new president occurred at the beginning of 1956, in Jacareacanga (PA), but Juscelino, interested in attracting the military to his side and guaranteeing his own governability, articulated and promoted a broad amnesty that benefited all civilians and military personnel involved in recent barracks. He would still face another military revolt in Aragarças (GO), in 1959, which was quickly put down.
With the political and military scenario calmed, Juscelino’s focus was to put into practice his Target Plan, a set of measures to promote the country’s development, centered on industrialization, expansion of national infrastructure and the construction of . The euphoria of modernization took over the country, with the President of the Republic as its conductor, classified by the writer Guimarães Rosa as “the poet of public works”.
“The JK government was a moment of great achievements for the country, on all fronts. The president was seen by the population as someone who was modernizing Brazil, creating opportunities for people and generating jobs”, says social scientist Fábio Chateaubriand Borba, a scholar of the Minas Gerais politician’s work and creator of the documentary “JK – The Reinventor of Brazil”.
The documentary in miniseries format was shown in 2023 and tells the story of Juscelino from his childhood in Diamantina (MG), where he was born, until the tragic accident that took his life in a collision that occurred on Via Dutra almost 50 years ago, in August 1976. These were never fully clarified.
Political scientist Rudá Ricci compares him to another popular phenomenon, John F. Kennedy, who presided over the United States from 1961 to 1963. Even the acronyms with the initials of his name are similar. “With the proportions preserved, JK adopted a style comparable to that of JFK. Politically he was not as advanced, but the boldness was in the way he marked his administrations, with works that created identity, opened the country to the world and revealed what a modern Brazil could be”, says Ricci.
On the other hand, his government was also marked by errors, according to experts. Unbridled spending on major projects, such as the construction of Brasília, caused a lack of control in public accounts and accelerated a problem that would torment the country in the following decades: inflation. Another problem was the lack of social and economic planning for the future of Rio de Janeiro, after the transfer of the federal government headquarters.
“When building the new capital, we didn’t think about what would happen to the old one. Many problems that existed in Rio were solved while the city was the capital, but not afterwards”, says Borba.
