History of Brazil since 1985

The period of Brazilian history since 1985 corresponds to the contemporary epoch in the history of Brazil, since the end of the military regime that had ruled the country from 1964 until 1985 and the restoration of civilian government.

In January 1985 the process of negotiated transition towards democracy reached its climax with the election of Tancredo Neves of the PMDB party (the party that had always opposed the military regime), as the first civilian president since 1964.

Neves' election to succeed general Figueiredo, the last of the military hand-picked Presidents, was hailed as the dawn of a New Republic (Nova República) and that term, that contrasts with the term República Velha (or Old Republic, the name of the first epoch of the Brazilian Republic, that lasted from 1889 until 1930), became synonym with the contemporary phase of the Brazilian Republic, that is, with the political institutions established in the wake of the country's re-democratization.

The first phase of the Brazilian New Republic, from the inauguration of José Sarney in 1985 (President Tancredo Neves fell ill on the eve of his inauguration so that he could not attend it; his running-mate José Sarney was inaugurated as vice president and served in Tancredo's stead as acting president until Tancredo died, without having ever taken the oath of office, whereupon Sarney succeeded to the presidency) until the inauguration of Fernando Collor in 1990 can be considered a still transitional period because, while the 1967–1969 constitution still remained in force the executive still had enormous powers and the president was able to legislate by means of decree-laws.

In 1986 the Sarney government fulfilled Tancredo's promise of passing in Congress a Constitutional Amendment to the Constitution inherited from the military period, summoning elections for a National Constituent Assembly to draft and adopt a new Constitution for the country. The Constituent Assembly began deliberations in February 1987 and concluded its work on October 5, 1988.

The adoption of Brazil's current Constitution in 1988 completed the process of re-establishment of the democratic institutions. The new Constitution replaced the authoritarian legislation that still remained in place and that had been inherited from the days of the military regime.

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