Historical Tancredo de Almeida Neves SFO (Portuguese pronunciation: [tɐ̃ˈkɾedu dʒi awˈmejdɐ ˈnɛvis]) (4 March 1910 – 21 April 1985) was a Brazilian politician, lawyer, and entrepreneur.

During this period, there was great political turmoil in favour of the movement known as Diretas Já, a civil action that mobilized the youth and proclaimed direct elections for president.

But with the defeat of the "Dante de Oliveira amendment", which would have mandated direct elections for president in 1984, Neves was chosen to represent the Democratic Alliance, a coalition of opposition parties.

In July 2012 he was elected one of the 100 Greatest Brazilians of All Time in a competition organized by Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão (SBT) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

[4] Tancredo Neves was born at 3:30 BRT on 4 March 1910 in São João del-Rei, Minas Gerais and was of mostly Portuguese, but also Austrian descent[5] and graduated in law.

Once his work with the Constituent Assembly was over, he assumed leadership of the Social Democratic Party workbench and led the opposition to Milton Campos' government.

As Minister of Justice during Vargas' administration, Neves offered to take on the Cabinet of War, which was responsible for arresting rebel military and to head the democratic resistance.

[8] Journalist Pedro Jorge de Castro narrated in his book Carlos Castelo Branco – Brazil's Journalist, the episode about the fountain pen, saying that once the meeting with the ministers was over, Vargas went up to his apartment at the Catete Palace and then turned to bid goodbye to Minister of Justice, Neves, and gave him the gold Parker-21 pen, and said before taking his life: "To the sure friend, in unsure times."

Neves remained loyal to Vargas's memory, opposing João Café Filho's administration, and was one of the people who articulated Juscelino Kubitschek's candidacy as president, in the 1955 elections.

He then left the post in order to run for governor of Minas Gerais, but was defeated by José de Magalhães Pinto of the National Democratic Union.

Neves temporarily occupied the seat of the Ministry of Justice from 8 September to 13 October while he waited for the Social Progressive Party (PSP) which had former Governor of São Paulo, Adhemar Pereira de Barros as President, to indicate a name that would solidify his support to the parliamentary cabinet and replace him.

The new government also defended the existence of a law that would control the transfer of profits abroad, as long as it did not discouraged foreign investors, considered vital to the defrayment of the national economic development.

Several of Petrobrás' units were ceased for forty days while Mining and Energy Minister, Gabriel Passos faced difficulties inside his own administration in trying to promote the replacement of Petrobras' president and director.

The assassination of the Farmers League President, João Pedro Teixeira (PB), started protest manifestations that were soon prohibited by Commander of the Army, General Artur da Costa e Silva.

On 1 May 1962, Goulart gave a speech in Volta Redonda, in Rio de Janeiro, defending the urgency of reforms and the return of a presidencialist regime that would safeguard the actions of a strong and stable executive power.

He was the only member of the Social Democratic Party who did not vote for General Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco during the presidential elections by the National Congress on 11 April 1964.

He did that by gathering moderates from the MDB and the ARENA around him, including his old rival José de Magalhães Pinto, during President João Goulart's administration which had recreated a multiparty system in 1979.

As a result, he was chosen as national vice-president of PMDB, and on that same year, was elected Governor of Minas Gerais after a tough dispute with Democratic Social Party candidate, Eliseu Resende.

The college later appointed Mário Andreazza as Minister of Internal Affairs, Marco Maciel as senator, and Paulo Maluf as congressman, whom all brought a significant part of the PDS with them.

The opposition's first action took place in the county of Pernambuco, led by Mozart de Abreu e Lima, on the same day that the Military Regime completed its 19th year, 31 March 1983.

The manifestations that occurred in the Northeast of Brazil resulted from a manifesto by the ten opposition governors (nine from the PMDB and one from the PDT), which demanded the re-establishment of direct presidential elections.

Neves was the first one to give a speech and received a massive applause when he said: "The time has come for us to free our nation from this confusion that has overtaken the country in the past twenty years".

Governors from the PMDB and Leonel Brizola from the Democratic Labour Party (Brazil) PDT announced their support of Neves as a candidate from the opposition in the elections of the Electoral College (that was composed of the National Congress and representatives from the Legislative Assemblies).

Antônio Carlos reacted to the statements made by Air force Minister, Délio Jardim de Matos, who said that whoever abandoned the PDS candidate was a traitor.

The Neves-Sarney alliance was then made official and members of the opposition went on the road to defend their proposals in rallies that were as popular as the ones during the Diretas Já campaign.

Fearing a maneuver from João Figueiredo that would extend his mandate two more years, and would establish direct elections for his successor, Neves went live on TV and declared that Maluf would waive his candidacy.

In the hospital, he told his cousin Francisco Dornelles – who had been appointed as Finance Minister – that he would refuse surgery if he didn't have the guarantee that outgoing President João Figueiredo would induct José Sarney.

According to information compiled by the Getúlio Vargas Foundation, the maneuvers to bring Sarney to office were already under Ulysses Guimarães (President of the Chamber, PMDB-SP), and Leitão de Abreu's Chief of Staff of Brazil lead.

[22][23][24] On 28 June 1985 Sarney fulfilled the promise Neves had made during his campaign, to bring Message 330, which called for the convening of a new Constituent Assembly,[25] to National Congress.

It also showcases some of Neves's speech manuscripts, letters written by him and to him by personalities such as Juscelino Kubistchek and João Goulart, as well as material from the Diretas Já campaign, and his certificate as President.