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Heloisa HelenaBrazilian social and political figure
Date of Birth: 06.06.1962
Country: ![]() |
Content:
- Early Life and Political Beginnings
- Rise in the Workers' Party
- Expulsion from PT and Founding of PSOL
- Leadership of the Socialism and Liberty Party
- Presidential Candidacy and Shift to Rede
Early Life and Political Beginnings
Eloiza Elena, a nurse and educator, played a pivotal role in establishing the Health Center at the Federal University of Alagoas. She actively participated in student, union, and social movements challenging the military dictatorship.
Inspired by Chico Mendes, Elena joined the Workers' Party (PT) in 1985. Within the party, she led "Socialist Democracy," a Trotskyist faction and the Brazilian section of the Reunited Fourth International.
Rise in the Workers' Party
In 1992, Elena became deputy mayor of Maceió in a coalition government between PT and the Brazilian Socialist Party. She was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alagoas in 1994 and to the Federal Senate in 1998.
After her party colleague Luís Inácio Lula da Silva's presidential victory in 2002, Elena emerged as a staunch critic of PT's departure from socialist policies, compromises with bourgeois parties, and the new coalition government's centrist orientation.
Expulsion from PT and Founding of PSOL
Her opposition to the pension reform in the Senate in December 2003 resulted in her expulsion from PT for violating party discipline. She remained in the Senate as an independent politician.
Leadership of the Socialism and Liberty Party
After her expulsion from PT, Elena and other party dissidents founded the Partido Socialismo e Liberdade (PSOL) in late 2004, a consistently anti-capitalist political force. Elena served as the first national president of PSOL from 2004 to 2010, also leading the "Freedom and Revolution" faction within the party.
Her influential parliamentary work brought her widespread recognition. In late 2005, Forbes Brasil magazine named her the most influential woman in Brazilian politics and the legislature, while IstoÉ Gente magazine declared her the Person of the Year.
Presidential Candidacy and Shift to Rede
In the 2006 general elections, Elena ran for president as the PSOL candidate. She came third after PT's Lula and the center-right candidate, receiving 6.6 million votes (nearly 6.9%).
In the following 2008 municipal elections, she was elected councilor of Maceió with the highest number of votes in the state of Alagoas (nearly 30,000).
Elena declined to run for president in the 2010 elections despite polls suggesting she had a chance of success. Instead, she unsuccessfully ran for Senate in Alagoas. Despite leading in polls for an extended period, she ultimately received 417,636 votes (16.6% of the total), finishing third behind Benedito de Lira and Renan Calheiros.
In 2010, Elena announced she was stepping down as PSOL president. She stated that her decision was due to the party's support for PT's presidential candidate Dilma Rousseff in the second round of the 2010 presidential election.
Elena joined the Sustainability Network (Rede Sustentabilidade) party in 2013, which she helped to found with former senator Marina Silva. She cited "programmatic differences," particularly her opposition to abortion, as reasons for leaving PSOL.