Campos Machado, deputy for 8 terms in Alesp, dies – 01/06/2024 – Power

State deputy in São Paulo for eight consecutive terms, Antonio Carlos Campos Machado (PSD), 84, died this Saturday morning (6) at the Sírio-Libanes hospital, in São Paulo, where he was hospitalized due to leukemia.

A veteran of the Legislative Assembly of São Paulo (Alesp), Campos Machado was a state deputy from 1987 to 2023. In 2022, he was unable to be re-elected for another four years in the House. His wake will be held at the Alesp Monumental Hall from 1pm this Saturday.

He was head of the PTB in São Paulo, a party to which he was affiliated for almost his entire political career. In 2020, he left the party chaired by Roberto Jefferson because he did not agree with the party’s rapprochement with former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

At the time, Campos Machado stated that Jefferson had turned into a “dictator”, which he no longer recognized.

Machado then joined Avante, the party he presided over in São Paulo, and created SP Frente Cidadã, a non-partisan movement to rescue laborism in the state.

As the Panel column showed, the former parliamentarian attributes his defeat in 2022 to the disorganization of the party he was trying to structure. Torn between the demands of the campaign and the party, Machado had difficulties on both fronts.

In August 2023, he joined Gilberto Kassab’s PSD. At the time, Kassab classified the former deputy as “one of the great celebrities in São Paulo and national politics”.

An influential politician in the interior of São Paulo, Machado began to attract mayors to his new party.

In the Assembly, Machado was an ally of the Tucano governments, especially Geraldo Alckmin, today vice-president of the Republic affiliated with the PSB. The former deputy, however, became an opponent of former governor João Doria, whom he did not spare criticism on the platform.

Recognized for his rhetoric and catchphrases, he stated, in an interview with Sheet in 2019, having received eight awards as state speaker.

Campos Machado worked mainly in the areas of public security and justice — he was a defender of reducing the age of criminal responsibility.

Among the most prominent projects it managed to approve is the law that established free public transport in São Paulo for people over 60 years of age.

Born in Cerqueira César and a lawyer graduated from the University of São Paulo, Machado entered public life through former president Jânio Quadros, according to his biography published on the Alesp website.

Machado was the target of two investigations by the Public Ministry. One investigated an accusation of illicit enrichment due to atypical movements of R$6.1 million and the other aimed at the alleged charging of public servants for appointments to positions in the State Department of Justice and the Assembly.

The former deputy always stated that his assets were justified in Income Tax and that the amounts were due to his work as a lawyer for 40 years. Regarding the second accusation, he said he was the victim of an orchestrated campaign that would be easily refuted.