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The Americas The Economist December 16th 2017 29

Also in this section
30 Bello: The literature of fear
32 Sugar in the Caribbean
32 Voting in Venezuela

Brazil’s new politicians for next year’s election. But the fund, and
Taking on the dirty old men airtime, will be allocated in proportion to
parties’ current representation. That frus-
trates newcomers. “Congress is like a can-
cer,” says Mr Oliveira. “It’s not working in
the best interests of the body and it’s de-
fendingitselfto survive.”
People are trying to find a cure. Mr Ol-
SÃO PAULO iveira has applied to RenovaBR, a pro-
Angrywith a corruptCongress, a fresh generation ofBrazilians steps on stage
gramme to support young Brazilians who
ITH his reversed baseball cap and fa- told hiscongressional colleagueshe would want to run for congress. Financed by en-
W cial fuzz, the style of29-year-old Dan- not seek re-election in 2018. “Only eight of trepreneurs, it offers150 “scholars” courses
iel José Oliveira (pictured) is hardly typical the 513 actuallyshowup here,” he moaned. on Brazil’s institutions plus advice on cam-
for a Brazilian politician. Nor is his back- “I am one ofthose eight and I am a clown.” paigning and policy. It has thousands of
ground: he was one of 11 siblings brought Young Brazilians are fed up. “Four years bidders for a half-year programme starting
up in a small town by a domestic servant ago someone like me running for congress in January. Scholars will get a monthly sti-
and an office porter. After winning a schol- would have made no sense,” says Mr Ol- pend of12,000 reais ($3,645).
arship to a Catholic school, he studied eco- iveira. But renewing Brazil’s congress will They will be selected by written tests
nomics at a fine São Paulo campus. That not be easy. Independent candidates are and interviews. They can belong to any
led to a job at J.P. Morgan, a scholarship to banned and parties are unwelcoming to party, but cannot hold extremist views. In
study at Yale University and a job offer newcomers. In some statesseatsstayin the return the scholars vow to complete their
from anotherAmerican investment firm. hands ofwell-known families. mandate, justify their voting decisions to
But in 2015, with Brazil’s economy Dislodging them may get harder. In their constituents and avoid hiring family
crashing and its politics mired in scandals, 2015, after a series of scandals, Brazil’s su- as staff members. Eduardo Mufarej, who
he instead came home. Inspired by En preme court outlawed corporate cam- started the project, hopes to see at least 45
Marche!, the French liberal party which paign contributions. In October congress scholars elected.
propelled Emmanuel Macron to the presi- created a “special campaign-finance fund” Other groups are working to make con-
dency, he hopes to be elected next October gress more representative. Bancada Ati-
as a federal deputy forSão Paulo state. vista (ActivistGroup) isa left-leaning outfit,
Until recently, politics was a turn-off for An appalling assessment formed to fight São Paulo’s city-council
his generation. The average age of lower- “How do you evaluate the performance of senators election in 2016. Rather than creating a
house deputies elected in 2014 was 50, 19 and federal deputies in Brazil’s congress?” party, it chose eight candidates from two
years above the national mean. Brazil’s % of Brazilians responding established ones. Only one was a hetero-
old-timers are discredited: after more than Bad 60 sexual white male. “By definition, a black
three years of the Lava Jato (car wash) cor- 50 woman is more representative than a
ruption probe, 40% ofcongressmen are un- 40 white graduate from Harvard,” says Caio
der investigation. Politicians are unloved. Average Tendolini, a 33-year-old member of the
Just one voter in 20 admires them; only 3% 30 group. It arranged “speed-dating” events
approve ofPresident Michel Temer. 20 for candidates to meet voters and offered
Confidence in congress has been sag- 10 social-media training and public-policy
ging for ages. In 2010 Tiririca (Grumpy), a Good contacts. It started working: the candidates
professional clown, was elected to Brazil’s 0 drew a total of75,000 votes and one got in.
lower house under the slogan “It can’t get 1993 2000 05 10 17 It will scale up its operation next October.
any worse.” It did. On December 6th he Source: Datafolha Agora! (Now!) was founded in 2016 to 1