Romeu Zema Neto (born 28 October 1964) is a Brazilian businessman, administrator, and politician affiliated with the NOVO party.

[10] Zema was a member of the Liberal Party for all of his political affiliation but changed to run for NOVO in the 2018 Minas Gerais gubernatorial election.

His main opponents in PSDB and incumbent governor Fernando Pimentel, of the Worker's Party, held 10 point leads.

[12] In the closing remarks of the Globo debate, Romeu Zema stated that "those who want change, of course, can vote for the different candidates, which are Amoêdo and Bolsonaro.

[11] On 7 October 2018, the first round of the general elections was held in Brazil, and Romeu Zema reached the mark of 42.73% of valid votes against 29.06% for Antônio Anastasia and 23.12% for Fernando Pimentel.

[15] PSL, the party of presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, decided not to support the candidacy of Romeu Zema in Minas Gerais.

On social media, Antônio Anastasia criticized Zema's position stating that "he wanted PT on his side", even though the Workers' Party candidate was not part of the second round of the election.

Some analysts pointed out that Zema's victory in the elections was the result of a polarized political attrition between PT and PSDB, responsible for the state for the last 16 years.

[20] Zema was inaugurated on 19 December 2018, along with vice governor Paulo Brant (elected for NOVO and later changed to PSDB), an engineering professor, in the Palácio das Artes in Belo Horizonte.

Zema did not attend Jair Bolsonaro's inauguration, even though he had various forms of transportation at his disposal, largely bough in his predecessor term.

[23][24][25] After 4 months of negotiations, in May, the reform was approved by the Legislative Assembly of Minas Gerais, but Zema vetoed the ban on "jetons", something that increased the salaries of state secretaries that he had criticized in the electoral campaign; defending his change of opinion, Zema argued that "after verifying the effective reality of the state, he attested to its usefulness".

[28][29][30][31] Still in 2020, even after the crises left by the readjustment of public security servants' salary and in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Zema government had the goal of approving the reform of the state pension, with the aim of improving, in the long term, the situation of public accounts in Minas Gerais; the state has one of the worst fiscal deficits in the country.

[35] After the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, Zema issued lockdown orders that were criticised by NOVO's national directory, who claimed that the measures "negatively affected business".

In 2021 it was reported that Zema's government was under investigation by Augusto Aras, the Attorney General of Brazil, for its handling of state PPE purchases that may have benefited certain companies rather than achieving the lowest price.

In 2021, the Zema government closed an agreement with Vale S.A. for the damage caused by the dam's rupture, in which the company will pay the State 37.68 billion reais;[39] the money was set to be used in infrastructure works for the affected region.

The Movement of People Affected by Dams organized a protest against the agreement, which the group considered unfair,[40] while other actors welcomed the speed of the process.

[46] On March 9, 2020, during the launch of a state government program to support victims of domestic violence, Zema referred to domestic violence as “a natural instinct of human beings.”[47] On August 6, 2023, Zema discussed the divide between Brazil's North and Northeast with its South, Southeast, and West with the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo.

In the interview, Zema said: Other regions of Brazil, with states that are much smaller in terms of economy and population, unite and manage to vote and approve a series of projects in Brasília.

"[48] Other politicians like Eduardo Leite, the Governor of Rio Grande do Sul, initially supported Zema, who after critiscm stated "We will all be stronger the more we are one Brazil.