Serra faces election struggle against workers' champion Lula
( 2002-10-07 10:37 ) (7 )

Jose Serra, an austere US-educated economist and career politician, faces a mighty struggle now to overcome Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the battle to become president of Brazil.

Serra, 60, is the candidate of the status-quo supported by financial markets. Lula, with whom he will face off in the second round October 27, is the champion of Brazil's workers.

The second round will be necessary as Lula narrowly failed to get the 50 percent-plus-one vote needed in Sunday's first round of voting in Brazil.

A one-time leftist who moved to the center, Serra was hand-picked by his close friend President Fernando Henrique Cardoso to run for the ruling center-right the Brazilian Social Democratic Party.

Before he launched his campaign, Serra was health minister for Cardoso and was credited with forcing pharmaceutical companies to lower the cost of AIDS medicine in the developing world.

His long political experience has earned him respect as an administrator, and his centrist policies won him the support of Brazilian markets worried about the future of Latin America's largest economy.

Wall Street analysts also take it for granted that if elected, Serra would ensure the continuity in economic policy.

But his austere manner and lack of charisma have made it difficult for him to convince the electorate.

Unruffled by his rivals' jabs at his demeanour, Serra once said that "if 'disagreeable' is the worst they can call me after 40 years in politics, that's a rare compliment."

Cardoso is said to have stated recently that Serra "would be a good president but not a good candidate." And he insisted that Brazilians would eventually vote for Serra once they understood Brazil's economic stability is at stake.

The son of Italian immigrants, Serra was born in Sao Paulo on March 19, 1942. He went into exile after a 1964 military coup when he was a leftist student leader. He studied economy in Chile and later at Cornell University, in the United States.

He was an economic consultant for the Chilean government for a while, and sought refuge at the Italian embassy after the 1973 military coup in Santiago. He spent six months holed up at the diplomatic mission. He later traveled to the United States and spent two years as a visiting scholar at Princeton University.

He returned to Brazil in 1978. He was prevented from running for Congress since his political rights had been suspended by the dictatorship, and eventually was elected in 1986 + one year after civilian rule was restored. In 1994 he was elected senator.

Cardoso made him planning minister in 1995 and health minister in 1998.