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Southern Governor Names Ex-Beauty Queen as Assistant Tourism Secretary
01/14/2015 - 09h11
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FELIPE BÄCHTOLD
FROM PORTO ALEGRE
The governor of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, José Ivo Sartori (PMDB) has named a former Miss Brazil as the state's assistant secretary of Tourism, Sport and Leisure.
Gabriela Markus, 26, won the competition in 2012 and was Brazil's candidate at Miss Universe that year. She finished in fifth place.
A food engineering student at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, she has no experience in tourism.
Last year, she was a PMDB candidate for the state legislature. She received 26,000 votes, being the fifth-placed candidate in her coalition.
On TV, she is known as "Gabriela Miss Brasil". She advocates greater representation of women in Congress, political reform and improvement to transport.
"People are surprised that a former Miss might want to go into politics. Many people make incorrect judgements. I could continue my career as a model or TV presenter, but that's not really my profile," she says.
She is not the first in her family with political ambitions. Her uncle is mayor of Paverama (57 miles from Porto Alegre) and her father used to be a local councillor, both as representatives of the PMDB.
She says that a meeting with vice-president Michel Temer (PMDB) gave her the idea of going into politics herself, when she accompanied her uncle on a trip to Brasília.
"He asked me, 'Don't you think about standing yourself?'" she says. "He was my first mentor."
Temer is married to an ex-Miss, Marcela Tedeschi, who came second in the São Paulo state beauty competition.
When asked about her lack of experience, Markus says that she participated in the governor's transition group, that she has contacts with people in tourism, and that she intends to promote the restaurant sector.
Sartori has been criticised for only naming one woman in his government.
Translated by TOM GATEHOUSE