Temer, Michel (Michel Miguel Elias Temer Lulia), 1940–, Brazilian political leader. The son of Lebanese immigrants, he studied law at the Univ. of São Paolo and the Pontifical Univ. of São Paolo, becoming a scholar of constitutional law. A member of the Brazilian Democratic Movement party (PMDB), he served in the chamber of deputies (1987–2011) and was the body's president (1997–2001, 2009–10); he also became head (2001–16) of PMDB. In 2010 he was Dilma Rousseff's running mate and was elected vice president; they were reelected in 2014. After Rousseff was suspended in 2016 and put on trial in the senate for using illegal government accounting practices, Temer—who had withdrawn PMDB support from Rousseff—became acting president and then president (2016–18) after Rousseff was removed from office. In June, 2016, Temer was convicted of violating campaign spending laws and barred from running for office for eight years. He also has been implicated in the Petrobas and other corruption scandals (though in 2017 Brazil's congress twice voted not to put him on trial on corruption charges), and his administration was hampered by several scandals involving his cabinet. In Dec., 2016, he secured a constitutional amendment that limited government spending growth for 20 years, and in 2017 a law reducing restrictions on the labor market was enacted. In 2019, after he had left office, he was arrested and detained in connection with corruption investigations, but later released.
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