Antonio Britto Filho (born 1 July 1952) is a Brazilian journalist and politician, who held the positions of Congressman, Social Security Minister, and Governor of the state of Rio Grande do Sul.
Academic and journalistic life
The son of a journalist, he began working in a small local newspaper for his father, before completing his studies in journalism at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. Professionally, he started working in 1970 at the Journal of the Week, Sunday Publishing Group Editorial Sinos, as editor of football. Later, at the suggestion of journalist Paul St. Anne, he worked as a reporter for the paper Zero Hora, group RBS, at 19 years of age.
In 1972, he moved to radio Guaíba (belonging to the Junior Caldas), at the invitation of Peter Pereira Carneiro, where he became coordinator of the area and was head of sports journalism. In 1978, he left Guaíba and returned to the RBS group and started working in the TV Gaucha. That same year he became a professor at the University of Vale do Rio dos Sinos (Unisinos), a position he held until 1979.
RBS, was passed in 1979 to further the editorial policy of the Rede Globo in Brasília, acting as a commentator and presenter. In early 1985, right after the election of Tancredo Neves for the presidency, he was asked to become press secretary for the new government. In this role, he served as spokesman of medical information on the health of the President, in the period just prior to his death on 21 April 1985.
Early political career
Known through the television media and author of a book on the last days of Tancredo, he was invited by Ulysses Guimarães to join the Brazilian Democratic Movement (PMDB), to which party he threw himself candidate federal deputy elections 1986, being elected with one of the largest votes in the state (and reelected in 1990).
In the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil, he served in the preparation of the 1988 Constitution and was Chairman of the Committee on Science and Technology, Communication and Computing in the 1990-91 biennium. In 1988 he was appointed as the PMDB candidate for mayor of Porto Alegre, but despite the initial favoritism, faded and finished fourth in the election, which was won by Olivio Dutra (Workers Party, PT).
In 1992, he was invited by President Itamar Franco to take the folder of the Social Welfare. In the presidential decision to upgrade the salaries of retirees, he was then very beneficial, which leveraged the national popularity and put him as one of the probable successors of Itamar own elections in 1994. However, before the government preferred to seek their own state, guiding the support of the PMDB's presidential candidacy to the local Fernando Henrique Cardoso (Social Democratic Party, PSDB), in contrast to the official party candidate, Orestes Quercia.
In the first round of elections, he won 49.2% of the valid votes, against 34.7% of its main competitor, Dutra. In the second round, getting support from the Progressive Party (PPR) and part of the Democratic Labour Party (PDT) (then governor of Alceu Collares), he obtained 52.2% of the votes against 47.8% for Olivio. The polarization PMDB/PT in Rio Grande do Sul was repeated in the elections of 1998 and 2002.
In 2016, Antonio Britto didn't take part in the voting concerning the impeachment of then president Dilma Rousseff. However, deputy Antonio Luiz Paranhos Ribeiro Leite de Brito, better known as Antônio Brito (PSD/BA), namesake of the former governor, participated in the vote.
Britto Government
The management ahead of the government of Rio Grande do Sul was marked by administrative reforms and a heated controversy with the opposition (led by the PT), which held the hegemony of the unions of servers, especially the CPERS, which combines the teaching state.
This controversy was not limited to the salary issue, but included measures that Antonio Britto and his government have adopted to pursue the reorganization of state finances, which included the privatisation of the large municipalities of the state of public services, the Riograndense Telecommunications Company (telephony) and the State Company for Electric Energy, both established in the management of Brizola (1959-1962).
For the supporters of government Britto, privatization would increase the scope of services, reducing the cost of installation. To his opponents, the fees charged by the privatised companies would become more expensive over time for the population, benefiting only a few specific business groups.