Marina Silva Shakes Up the Presidential Election as Brazil’s Recession Becomes Official

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After the death of Brazilian presidential candidate Eduardo Campos in a plane crash on August 13, 2014, his running mate on the Partido Socialista Brasileiro (PSB) ticket, Marina Silva, took over as the official candidate.  She is a former minister of the environment and a former senator, who got almost 20 million votes in the last presidential election on the Green party ticket, but is still seen as a political outsider with tenuous connections to elite circles.  Silva is a militant environmentalist of humble origins and an evangelical Christian whose strong beliefs have earned her the reputation as being rather rigid, but many Brazilians see her as the country’s most ethical politician.  To the surprise of many pundits, polls indicate that she represents a significant threat to President Dilma Rousseff and rival to Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira (Social Democracy Party, PSDB) candidate Aetius Neves.  And while Silva could also get a boost from the now official recession in Brazil, there are still many questions about her true appeal to the left, and what her election could mean for the Brazilian political system.