Michel Temer: Reloaded?

On January 1, 2019, Michel Temer concluded his brief and turbulent stint as Brazil’s president. He took office in May 2016 amid the controversial impeachment of Dilma Rousseff and became a highly consequential president despite occupying the chair for less than three years. 

His administration passed harsh austerity measures — including a labor reform which failed to create the jobs it promised, and a 20-year federal spending cap which succeeded in taming the public deficit. It also left a pipeline of privatizations and other reforms which are arguably the only economic legacy the Jair Bolsonaro government has to show for. 

But beyond his economic agenda, the Temer administration was marked by a succession of corruption scandals. 

At the beginning of his time in government, he lost six cabinet members in as many months as a result of corruption scandals. And Mr. Temer himself faced two indictment requests for corruption, which he was only able to dodge after dishing out massive amounts of favors to allied parties.

Mr. Temer left office with a paltry 3-percent approval rating — much lower than those of Fernando Collor and Ms. Rousseff, neither of...