Source: Folha de S. Paulo, 18/07/2009

MEMORY

"Montoro would be exasperated"

The ten years since the death of ex-governor André Franco Montoro (1916-1999) were remembered, the day before yesterday, with mass, film screening and the launch of a book written by his daughter Monica, in the monastery of São Bento. The documentary ends with the indirect election for president of the Republic, in 1985, and does not cover the period in which the honoree supported the government of José Sarney, today at the head of the Senate and beset by accusations. The column asked the event's guests what Montoro would say about the current crisis and whether, at that time, practices such as nepotism and influence peddling were no longer linked to the figure of the current president of Congress.

“There wasn’t so much transparency, we didn’t know”, says São Paulo’s deputy mayor, Alda Marco Antônio (PMDB). “He had been governor of Maranhão and we didn't know anything was wrong. He was from the opposition [at the time MDB], but he had a respectable curriculum. ” For ex-governor Geraldo Alckmin (PSDB-SP), “it was another political moment. The crisis is not just for Sarney or the privilege of the Senate. Political reform is needed ”.

André Franco Montoro Filho leaves the film session, in the monastery amphitheater, and says that the documentary “should be shown in the Senate”. And Montoro's support for Sarney? “The Sarney of that time was much better than the Sarney of now,” says the son of the former governor and president of Etco (Brazilian Institute of Ethical Competition). "One of the last things I heard from my father about Sarney was that he was concerned, because Sarney had played an extraordinary role in the redemocratization of the country, but he had to preserve a broader view of politics, compatible with his biography."

Invoking that “his origin was in opposition to Vitorino Freire [1908-1977], who was the great northeastern colonel”, Montoro Filho says that “that Sarney, I agree with President Lula, was not an ordinary person. Wasn't Romário the greatest player in the world? And who voted for him as the biggest will regret it today [when the star is arrested for not paying alimony]? ”. The municipal secretary for Participation and Partnership, Ricardo Montoro (PSDB-SP), was his father's private secretary in the 1985 election. “Aécio [Neves] was Tancredo's secretary [Neves, elected president] and Roseana [Sarney] was secretary of her father [José Sarney, then vice-president of Tancredo]. We talked a lot ”. Ricardo thinks that, if his father were alive, “he would be profiled in the opposition and the departure of Sarney from the presidency of the Senate, which is demoralized. Sarney today is totally doomed ”.

After talking about Montoro at the monastery stand, Governor José Serra heads for the exit, surrounded by security guards and two advisors. “He would be on the line, no matter where he was. I would always be in the lead, exasperated by the direction that public life took ”, he says.