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Brazilian Democratic Movement Movimento Democrático Brasileiro | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Abbreviation | MDB |
| President | Baleia Rossi |
| Secretary-General | Jorge Caruso |
| Founded | 4 December 1965 (original MDB) 15 January 1980 (refounded as PMDB) 19 December 2017 (altered its name back to MDB) |
| Registered | 30 June 1981 (registered as PMDB) |
| Dissolved | 20 December 1979 (original MDB) |
| Merger of | Brazilian Labour Party Social Democratic Party (majority) |
| Headquarters | Câmara dos Deputados - Presidência do MDB, Ed. Principal sala T4 - Esplanada dos Ministérios Brasília |
| Think tank | Fundação Ulysses Guimarães |
| Youth wing | Juventude do MDB |
| Women's wing | MDB Mulher |
| Black wing | MDB Afro |
| LGBT wing | MDB Diversidade |
| Membership(2023) | 2,043,709 |
| Ideology | Economic liberalism[1] |
| Political position | Centre[5] tocentre-right[8] Historical: Centre[11] tocentre-left[14] |
| Regional affiliation | COPPPAL |
| Colours | Main: Green Secondary: Yellow, red and black |
| Slogan | "Balance Point" |
| TSE Identification Number | 15 |
| Chamber of Deputies | 42 / 513 |
| Federal Senate | 10 / 81 |
| Governorships | 3 / 27 |
| State Assemblies | 147 / 1,024 |
| Mayors | 1,022 / 5,570 |
| City Councillors | 7,825 / 56,810 |
| Website | |
| www | |
TheBrazilian Democratic Movement (Portuguese:Movimento Democrático Brasileiro,MDB) is a Brazilian political party. It is considered a "big tent party" and it is one of the parties with the greatest representation throughout the national territory, with the largest number ofsenators,mayors andcity councillors,[15][16][17] It has consistently held a large presence in the National Congress since 1988, and also has the largest number of affiliates, with 2,043,709 members as of July 2023[update].[18]
Originally, the MDB was founded on 1965 as part of an enforcedtwo party system by theBrazilian military dictatorship, being the "consented opposition" — providing an official, but controlled, opposition to the governistNational Renewal Alliance (ARENA). With thepolitical opening in the early 1980s the two parties were disbanded and former members of the MDB created theBrazilian Democratic Movement Party (Portuguese:Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro,PMDB),[19] the name by which the party was known until 2018.[20] It was the party of formerPresidents of BrazilTancredo Neves,José Sarney,Itamar Franco andMichel Temer, as well providing support for the governments ofFernando Henrique Cardoso,Luíz Inácio Lula da Silva andDilma Rousseff, as well as unofficial support for the government ofJair Bolsonaro.[21]
After the redemocratization of Brazil, MDB became abig tent party without a clear ideological program, seeking to have many members from various positions and different interest groups under its wing.[22] It has been considered one of the core members of theCentrão, having supported multiplegoverning parties since the beginning of theSixth Brazilian Republic.[23][22][24] As such, the party has been criticized and accused of being acronyistic "physiological party",[23][25][22] which focus on negotiating support for the government in exchange for positions, resources and political influence.[23][25]
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Under military rule from 1965 to 1979, Brazil had a legally enforced two party system, with supporters of the regime gathered under theNational Renewal Alliance Party (ARENA) umbrella, and the official opposition making up the MDB. Essentially, the MDB comprised nearly all of theBrazilian Labour Party and the main body of theSocial Democratic Party.
For much of the first decade-and-a-half of the military dictatorship, ARENA had large majorities in the federal and state legislatures, and the MDB was virtually powerless. Since the president was indirectly elected by Congress, ARENA's candidate—in practice, selected by the military high command—could not possibly be defeated. The MDB did not even put forward candidates in the first post-coup elections, in 1966 and 1969. While the MDB did put forward presidential candidates in 1974 and 1978, they were soundly defeated.
Starting in 1979,multipartyism was reintroduced to Brazil by the military government. A restricted number of parties were allowed and the two original parties were officially disbanded, with ARENA became officially known as theDemocratic Social Party. Many of the MDB left into multiple new opposition parties such as theDemocratic Labour Party (PDT),Brazilian Labour Party (PTB),Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), and theWorkers' Party (PT). Even though the country was redemocratizing, the military government sought to weaken the future successor of the MDB by demanding that new parties have "Party" on their official designations, thus forcing a rebranding.[19] The group which remained reorganized the old MDB as the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (Portuguese:Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro; PMDB).
The MDB had been abig tent party uniting nearly all of the opposition to the military dictatorship. As such, it harboured elements ranging across the political spectrum. PMDB had a similar character to its predecessor, including a range of politicians from conservatives such asJosé Sarney to liberals such asPedro Simon, leftists likeRoberto Requião, populists likeÍris Resende, nationalists likeOrestes Quércia and the formerguerrilla movementMR-8.
In 1985, party leaderTancredo Neves won the presidential election, but died before taking office. His running mateJosé Sarney, who had recently joined the party after defecting from the political wing of the military, became president, serving until 1990. Up until 2016, he was the onlypresident of Brazil to come from the party. In recent presidential elections the party has not run candidates of its own, preferring to focus on congressional and gubernatorial elections.
At the legislativeelections on 6 October 2002, the party won 74 out of 513 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 19 out of 81 seats in the Senate, making it one of the biggest parties in Brazil.
The party decided not to launch a candidate for the2006 presidential election in order to be free to join any coalition in the states. Under Brazilian electoral law then, parties launching presidential candidates could not form alliances at the state level that differed at the national level (this norm was subsequently repealed). At the congressional elections in October 2006, PMDB won 89 of 513 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, becoming its biggest party; and in the Senate it had 15 of the 81 seats after its one-third renovation, becoming the third-largest party. PMDB also won seven state gubernatorial elections in the same election.
In2010, the party made gains in the Senate, winning 16 of the elected seats for a total of 20. It was somewhat weakened in other elections, winning 79 seats in the Chamber of Deputies (becoming the second largest party) and winning five state governorships.
Notable PMDB members included:Wanderlei Silva,Tancredo Neves,Ulysses Guimarães,Itamar Franco,Orestes Quércia,Michel Temer,Anthony Garotinho,José Sarney,Renan Calheiros, Pedro Simon,Roberto Requião,Germano Rigotto,Paulo Skaf, Ramez Tebet, Marcelo Fortuna, Iris Rezende and Maguito Vilela.
On 29 March 2016, PMDB announced that it was leaving the coalition with theWorkers' Party following accusations against PresidentDilma Rousseff and former presidentLuiz Inácio Lula da Silva of corruption.[26] The PMDB supported theimpeachment process against Dilma Rousseff. After the impeachment process began, vice president Michel Temer formed a new center-right liberal coalition government withPSDB and other parties. He was confirmed as president as Dilma was permanently removed from office by the Senate on August, 31st 2016, thus becoming the second Brazilian president to hail from PMDB.
On 19 December 2017, the party reverted to its former name, Brazilian Democratic Movement (Portuguese:Movimento Democrático Brasileiro, MDB). The move was seen as an attempt to renew party identity. The initials PMDB had become associated with corruption and cronyism, while the original acronym was associated with the struggle fordemocracy, according to party leader,Romero Jucá. The party announced a program based oneconomic liberalism,fiscal conservatism and greater openness to sectors of civil society such as evangelicals and environmentalists. The party also made it clear that it will prioritize parliamentarians who agree with the new positions of the party, which has been interpreted by many as a warning that rebel parliamentarians, especially the senator from Paraná, Roberto Requião, strongly associated with the Brazilian nationalist left (and who eventually left the party in the summer of 2021 and eventually joined theWorkers' Party), and evenRenan Calheiros, the President of theFederal Senate, considered one of the most powerful personalities of Brazilian politics, but who shows little alignment with Temer's government and propositions of economic liberalism, can be excluded from the party. A few days earlier, SenatorKátia Abreu ofTocantins was expelled from the party for her support of the opposition, especially for her firm stance against the pension reform, as an alignment to the PT of whom she had been allied in the mandate of Dilma Rousseff.[27][28][29][30]
The PMDB is the Brazilian political party that received the mostbribes fromOdebrecht. The company's "institutional relations" manager, Melo Filho, says he can find among the PMDB senators "the parliamentarians most devoted to the group's interests", but also those "who asked for the highest contributions".[31]
The original MDB was founded as a legal, civil movement of opposition toBrazilian military government. Without a clear program except the democratization of the country, the party was an umbrella of opponents of military regime, ranging fromliberal conservatives andChristian democrats from parties likeChristian Democratic Party andSocial Democratic Party to former labourists, socialists and communists, ofBrazilian Labour Party,Brazilian Socialist Party andBrazilian Communist Party. With the redemocratization, many centrists and leftists left the party and joined other parties with more consistent ideologies.
Many Christian democrats,social liberals andsocial democrats broke with the party in 1988 to form theBrazilian Social Democracy Party, led byMario Covas,Fernando Henrique Cardoso,José Serra andFranco Montoro. Other PMDB members exited the party to more established left-wing parties, like the new incarnation ofBrazilian Socialist Party,Communist Party of Brazil andDemocratic Labour Party. In 2009, the last left-wing section of the party abandoned it and formed theFree Fatherland Party, afar left party descending from theMR-8 guerrilla. Some strong leftists, however, like senatorRoberto Requião, remained in the party, but more isolated and less powerful (Requião too would eventually leave the party in July 2021). Other powerful politicians within the party, like former Rio de Janeiro governorSérgio Cabral Filho and senatorRenan Calheiros, established a neutral political stance, sometimes described as "physiological" by critics.
The left-wing loss was strong, and as such, the positions of those who left were replaced eventually by dissidents of centrist, centre-left and even right-wing parties, who joined to avoid falling out of power (as independent candidates are not allowed to run in elections in Brazil) and/or losing feuds with local or national party leadership. This replacement changed the character of the party from a catch-all party to a centrist one with a visible centre-right tendency. The party denied the centre-right character or any strict adherence to any political ideology. The party maintains that it is an open party for any and all Brazilians committed to democracy.
The party's programme from 2015 is based on the document "Bridge to the Future" detailing the measures to be taken to modernise Brazil, including reform of the labour code, overhaul of the pension system, privatisation of some public companies and reduction of some social rights.[32]
| Election | Party candidate | Running mate | Coalition | Votes | % | Votes | % | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First round | Second round | |||||||
| 1974 | Ulysses Guimarães (MDB) | Barbosa Lima Sobrinho (MDB) | None | 76 | 16,0% | - | - | Lost N |
| 1978 | Euler Bentes Moreiro (MDB) | Paulo Brossard (MDB) | None | 226 | 38.9% | - | - | LostN |
| 1985 | Tancredo Neves (PMDB) | José Sarney (PMDB) | MDB;PFL | 480 | 72.73% | - | - | Elected Y |
| 1989 | Ulysses Guimarães (PMDB) | Waldir Pires (PMDB) | None | 3,204,853 | 4.7% | - | - | LostN |
| 1994 | Orestes Quércia (PMDB) | Iris de Araújo (PMDB) | PMDB;PSD | 2,773,497 | 4.4% | - | - | LostN |
| 2002 | José Serra (PSDB) | Rita Camata (PMDB) | PSDB; PMDB | 19,705,061 | 23.19% | 33,370,739 | 38.72% | LostN |
| 2006 | None | None | None | - | - | - | - | - |
| 2010 | Dilma Rousseff (PT) | Michel Temer (PMDB) | (PT; PMDB;PDT;PCdoB;PSB;PR;PRB;PSC;PTC;PTN) | 47,651,434 | 46.91% | 55,752,529 | 56.05% | ElectedY |
| 2014 | (PT; PMDB;PSD;PP;PR;PDT;PRB;PROS;PCdoB) | 43,267,668 | 41.59% | 54,501,119 | 51.64% | ElectedY | ||
| 2018 | Henrique Meirelles (MDB) | Germano Rigotto (MDB) | (MDB;PHS) | 1,288,948 | 1.20% | - | - | LostN |
| 2022 | Simone Tebet (MDB) | Mara Gabrilli (PSDB) | (MDB;PSDB;Cidadania;PODE) | 4,915,420 | 4.16% | - | - | LostN |
| Election | Chamber of Deputies | Federal Senate | Role in government | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Seats | +/– | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | ||
| 1966 | 4,915,470 | 36.0% | 132 / 409 | New | 5,911,361 | 43.4% | 4 / 23 | New | Opposition |
| 1970 | 4,777,927 | 30.5% | 87 / 310 |  45 | 13,440,875 | 39.6% | 6 / 46 |  2 | Opposition |
| 1974 | 10,954,359 | 48.0% | 161 / 364 | 74 | 14,486,252 | 59.0% | 16 / 22 | 10 | Opposition |
| 1978 | 14,803,526 | 49.6% | 191 / 422 | 30 | 17,432,948 | 57.1% | 8 / 23 | 8 | Opposition |
| 1982 | 17,666,773 | 43.0% | 200 / 479 | 9 | 18,410,338 | 43.7% | 9 / 25 | 1 | Opposition |
| 1986 | 22,633,805 | 47.8% | 260 / 487 | 60 | N/A | N/A | 38 / 49 | 29 | Majority |
| 1990 | 7,798,653 | 19.3% | 108 / 502 | 152 | N/A | N/A | 8 / 31 | 30 | Coalition |
| 1994 | 9,287,049 | 20.3% | 107 / 513 | 1 | 14,870,466 | 15.5% | 14 / 54 | 6 | Coalition |
| 1998 | 10,105,609 | 15.2% | 83 / 513 | 24 | 13,414,074 | 21.7% | 26 / 81 | 18 | Coalition |
| 2002 | 11,692,011 | 13.4% | 76 / 513 | 7 | 25,199,662 | 15.4% | 19 / 81 | 7 | Coalition |
| 2006 | 13,580,517 | 14.6% | 89 / 513 | 13 | 10,148,024 | 12.0% | 16 / 81 | 3 | Coalition |
| 2010 | 12,537,252 | 13.0% | 79 / 513 | 10 | 23,998,949 | 14.1% | 19 / 81 | 3 | Coalition |
| 2014 | 10,791,949 | 11.09% | 66 / 513 | 13 | 12,129,969 | 13.58% | 18 / 81 | 1 | Coalition |
| 2018 | 5,439,167 | 5.5% | 34 / 513 | 17 | 12,800,290 | 7.5% | 12 / 81 | 6 | Confidence and Supply |
| 2022 | 7,992,988 | 7.2% | 42 / 513 | 8 | 3,882,458 | 3.8% | 10 / 81 | 2 | Coalition (2022–2023) |
| Independent (2023–2024) | |||||||||
| Coalition (2024–2025) | |||||||||
| Confidence and Supply (2025–present) | |||||||||
(vii) Ideology (party): Despite that some international political science approaches consider party ideology a 'démodé' variable, Brazilian political scientists still vastly use it. Considering the objectives of our study, we classified the parties according to the literature concepts (ZUCCO JR., 2009), under which codes range from left (1) to right (5). Left: PSOL, PSTU, PCO, PCB. Center-left: PT, PCdoB, PDT. Center: PMDB, PSDB, PSB, PPS, PV. Center-right: PSD, PP, PR, PRB, PROS,PSC, PTB, PHS, SD. Right: DEM, PMN, PRP, PRTB, PSDC, PSL, PTdoB, PTC, PTN.
Mr Temer, from the centre-right MDB party, took over the Brazilian presidency in August 2016 following the impeachment of leftist Dilma Rousseff, a process in which he played a key role.
In 1982 São Paulo's governor, Franco Montoro of the centrist Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), created the Council for Participation and Development of the Black Community.
Garotinho, however, continued in the political limelight, joining the centrist Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB; Partido do Movimento Democra ́tico Brasileiro), and positioning himself to run as the PMDB candidate in the 2006 presidential election.
{{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help){{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help)| Preceded by | Numbers of Brazilian Official Political Parties 15 - BDM (MDB) | Succeeded by |
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