Fernando Fontoura

Fernando Fontoura Costa e Silva (10 July, 1954 — Sirilândia, São Francisco, Maracatibe) is a Maracatibean, professor, and , who currently serves as President of the Sovereign Community of Maracatibe since 2019, after winning the 2018 Presidential Elections in the second round. He is an politician, affiliated with the Social Democratic Party (center-right). Previously, he served as president of the National Bank and Minister for the Economy under Antonio Calegaro, as well as Minister for Foreign Affairs under Jorge Futkwobeni. He was a member of the Economic Reform Council in the Ministry of Economy, at the time under Futkwobeni,  at Antônio Corte Real presidential government.

Childhood and youth
Fernando Fontoura is the youngest son of Isabella Costa e Silva and Armando Fontoura, a military couple. He was born in the small town of Sirilândia, near the provincial capital, Urutiba. His father was an Army General, which gave him a good economic situation. Fontoura studied at Colégio Senador Alberto Chagas during the last 7 years of basic education, and when leaving there, he studied medicine at the University of Urutiba. However, Fontoura dropped out of the course, and decided to study International Relations at the University of São Pedro.

Career as a diplomat
After leaving university, at the age of 25, he took a contest for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but was not approved, trying again the following year and getting the position of Third Secretary. At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he rose in office while specializing in economics and learning new languages.

Political career
Fontoura was first appointed to the Economic Reform Council in 1987, with the election of Jorge Futkwobeni, but left his post two years later to return to diplomacy, and was appointed ambassador to Prabhat and later to Legantus.

In 1996, after 7 years as an ambassador, Fontoura was appointed to be the executive secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at the time headed by Daniel Lopes. Two years later, Lopes stepped down, and President Jorge Futkwabeni appointed Fontoura to be the Maracatibean Foreign Affairs Minister. Fontoura spent five years in office, working to secure several agreements of economic and political importance.

In 2003, when he left office, he was appointed by President Antônio Calegaro to occupy the position of Minister of Economy of Maracatibe. During his tenure, a pension reform was carried out, and the government fostered tourism and entrepreneurship through tax cuts, spending cuts and red tape (a mini reform along the lines of the 1986 reform). Three years later, he was transferred to the presidency of Banco Nacional Maracatibean, where he remained until 2010. he joined in 2004 the Social Democratic Party.

For eight years, Fontoura started working in the private sector, giving lectures and participating in consultancies, in addition to writing several books on geopolitics and economic theories. He also taught economics at the University of Santa Helena. In 2014, he was the advisor to presidential candidate Ricardo Oliva, and would be the future minister of the economy, Oliva lost in the second round.

2018 Elections
Main:Maracatibean 2018 Elections After Oliva's defeat in 2014, the Social Democratic Party went on to discuss a candidate for the next elections. Through an internal election among party members, Fontoura's name won with 67.5% in the first round, and preparations for the campaign began in 2017, the height of the Yousseff government crisis.

On September 1, with the start of the election campaign, Fontoura emphasized the need for economic reforms to get out of the crisis, and criticized the way the Yousseff government dealt with the economy. From the beginning, Fontoura was already leading the research, while Yousseff's candidate was in third place, under Frederico Esmeralda, of the Centro Radical - Democratic Movement coalition.

On the day of the first round, Fontoura received 12.1 million votes (39.2%), followed by Gisele Andrade, from Yousseff's Party for Democracy and Citzenship, who received 23.5% of the vote. In the second round, Fontura was elected with 61.51%, being the highest percentage win since the re-democratization.

Economy management
To contain inflation, Fernando Fontoura cut several government expenditures, reducing salaries, firing employees and privatizing deficient state companies. In addition, Fontoura increased the basic interest rate and created a new labor and social security reform in order to create jobs. In general, Fontoura had to dismantle several things introduced by previous governments. Considered the biggest reforms since 1986, they were successful, and the government managed to reduce several taxes in the years that followed. Foreign investments and the stock exchange broke records in 2020 and 2021.

Despite this, the economic crisis is still present, in the increase of socioeconomic inequalities and unemployment, of 9.91%, although there are prospects for improvement. Inflation went from 22.6% at the peak of the crisis to just 5.6% with the reforms, and the government expects it to drop below 3% by 2022.

Education
A reform in high school was introduced, which changes the curriculum base and establishes 2 schedules, the common curriculum schedule and the specialization curriculum schedule. In this way, students can study more what they are most interested in or are better at (specialization curriculum schedule), while the common curriculum schedule ensures that there is no loss on learning. Schools had extended class schedules, and complementary classes or recreational/sports activities were established on weekends. This project displeased many professionals in the area, as the increase in the workload was not accompanied by an increase in wages.

Infrastructure
Despite the austerity policies, the infrastructure received major investments, mainly for the paving of highways in the interior and the reactivation of some railways (critical points of the Maracatibean infrastructure). The works were carried out with the support of the private sector, through privatizations, concessions and joint ventures.

Science and technology
The 2019 spending cut affected this sector, but from the second half of 2020, investments began to return to normal. Fontoura granted tax incentives to companies that invest the most in science and technology. The Space Program will continue with the project to develop a reusable rocket and should send its missions to ____ and _____ later this year.

Armed forces
The military was included in the pension reform and in the reduction of wages and benefits. The third Mesquita-class helicopter carrier has been canceled, but the second is still under construction. Indaema's PCMX (Next Maracatibean Fighter) program continued. In addition, Fontoura said that Maracatibe will develop its own armor to complement and subsequently replace the TPB-88.