Luciana Genro

Luciana Krebs Genro (Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, January 17, 1971) is a Brazilian politician, state deputy and one of the founders of the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL). In 2014, she was the PSOL nominee for President of Brazil. She came in 4th place, receiving more than 1.6 million votes nationally. She is the daughter of Tarso Genro, an important Workers' Party (PT) politician. Luciana began her political career in the student movement in Porto Alegre and was part of the Socialist Convergence, at the time of the current Workers' Party (PT). She was elected in 1994, at the age of 23, for her first term as state deputy, and re-elected in 1998 with twice the previous vote. In the Legislative Assembly, she stood out for denouncing corruption at Corsan, when directed by Berfran Rosado, and for defending various processes of struggles of teachers, students, workers and other social movements. In 2002, she was elected for the first time as a federal deputy by her state, in the same elections in which Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva rose to the Presidency of the Republic. Right at the beginning of the government, she disagreed with PT policies after coming to power, particularly with the government's pension reform proposal in 2003. She voted against and was expelled from the party by José Dirceu and José Genoíno, who are now detained after the Mensalão scandal. She started, with Heloísa Helena and other dissident deputies, the founding process of PSOL, consolidated in 2005. The following year, she was re-elected federal deputy, already by the new party. In her two terms in the Chamber of Deputies, she devoted herself especially to bills in the economic field, such as the regulation of the tax on large fortunes. In 2008, she ran for mayor of Porto Alegre and took fourth place, with 9% of the votes. Luciana was a candidate for the Presidency of Brazil in the 2014 elections. In her campaign, she defended a program of deep reform of the economic and political systems, agrarian reform, civil rights and freedoms, among others.