Do we like them?

Do we like Fernando Henrique Cardoso?

Our score: 7 out of 10. A long public record on the right side of democracy and drug reform, held back by one contested 1997 episode and a thin record on LGBTQ+ issues.

Fernando Henrique Cardoso is the rare sociologist who ended up running the country. The Library of Congress credits his scholarship on Brazil's social structures, economy and race relations, and says he presided over the move from military dictatorship and high inflation to a more inclusive democracy. He was president of Brazil from 1995 to 2002.

The messy chapter is the 1997 constitutional change that let presidents run for a second term. Brazil's Chamber of Deputies news service reported that two deputies were recorded admitting they received funds over the vote, and both resigned their seats. The case reached a congressional inquiry in 2005, and the article we read doesn't name Cardoso as accused of anything. It's a stain on the era, not a proven one on him.

On the harm test he comes up clean. He has argued that drug trafficking is a crime but drug use is a health problem, and he chaired the Global Commission on Drug Policy, which pushed to end the criminalisation of people who use drugs. He also admitted in a 2012 interview that he was wrong, while president, to accept repression as the answer. That's a change of mind, and it stuck.

On democracy, he has stayed consistent. He urged Brazilians in 2022 to back a candidate who would strengthen institutions and protect the environment, which Bloomberg read as a rebuke of Bolsonaro. In 2020 he told Bloomberg he thought Bolsonaro's star was in decline. Be honest about the gap, though: we found nothing from him on same-sex marriage or trans rights, good or bad.

Nothing new has turned up on him lately that bears on the question. The good stuff is mostly intellectual and public service. In 2012 he won the US$1 million Kluge Prize for lifetime achievement in the study of humanity, and the Library called him one of Brazil's greatest leaders.

So would we back him? Yes. He is a statesman who changed his mind on drugs, stood up for democracy when it was under pressure, and has no harmful record we could find. The asterisk is the 1997 reelection saga and the silence on LGBTQ+ issues.