Brazilian Labour Party Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro | |
|---|---|
 | |
| President | Marcus Vinícius Neskau[1] |
| Honorary President | Roberto Jefferson |
| Founder | Ivete Vargas |
| Founded | 21 November 1979 (1979-11-21) |
| Registered | 3 November 1981 (1981-11-03) |
| Dissolved | 9 November 2023 (2023-11-09) |
| Merger of | Party of the Nation's Retirees Social Democratic Party |
| Preceded by | Brazilian Labour Party |
| Merged into | Democratic Renewal Party |
| Headquarters | SAS, Qd. 1, Bloco M, Ed. Libertas, Loja 101 Brasília,Brazil |
| Think tank | Fundação Ivete Vargas |
| Youth wing | Juventude Trabalhista Cristã Conservadora Historical: Juventude do PTB |
| Membership(2021) |  1,075,750[2] |
| Ideology | Social conservatism Brazilian nationalism Right-wing populism[3] National conservatism Christian right[4] Factions: Brazilian Integralism[5] Historical: Getulism Labourism[6] Left-wing nationalism[6] |
| Political position | Right-wing[citation needed] tofar-right[3] Historical: Centre-left[7] toleft-wing |
| Colours | White Yellow Green Blue |
| Slogan | "God, Family, Homeland and Freedom" |
| TSE Identification Number | 14 |
| Website | |
| ptb | |
TheBrazilian Labour Party (Portuguese:Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro, PTB) was apolitical party in Brazil registered in 1981.[8] It was the seventh largest political party in Brazil with more than a million affiliated as of 2022.[9]
The party was founded byIvete Vargas, niece of PresidentGetúlio Vargas, and claimed the legacy of thehistorical PTB founded by Getúlio, although many historians reject this because while early version of PTB was acenter-left party with wide support in theworking class, and despite the name suggesting aleft-leaning unionist labour party, the later PTB was mainly abig tentcentrist party for most of its history, considered part of theCentrão, a bloc of parties without consistent ideological orientation which supports different sides of the political spectrum in order to gain political privileges,[10] whileLeonel Brizola'sDemocratic Labour Party (PDT) came to be regarded as the true heir to the original PTB's labourist and leftist traditions.[11] As such, they supported the presidency ofFernando Collor de Mello,Itamar Franco, andFernando Henrique Cardoso — all consideredcenter-right — as well asLuiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the first term ofDilma Rousseff — who were left-leaning presidents.[12] Since theconservative wave in the 2010s, the party had shown strong support for the government ofJair Bolsonaro,[13] presenting policies from a moreright-wing angle, in addition to affiliating federal deputyDaniel Silveira, known for making references toAI-5.[14]
After the2022 Brazilian general elections, PTB failed to break through theelectoral threshold, thus cutting access toparty subsidies and free political advertisement. Thus, in November 2023, it merged with the partyPatriota to form theDemocratic Renewal Party.[15]
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Theoriginal PTB was a center-leftlabourist party with strong support fromtrade unions founded in 1945 by former Brazilian presidentGetúlio Vargas, who formerly presided the country from 1930 to 1945. After Vargas' suicide in 1954, PTB's main figures becameLeonel Brizola andJoão Goulart, who was electedvice-president in 1960 — becoming president after the resignation ofJânio Quadros — until his deposition after the1964 coup d'état. After that PTB, along with every other Brazilian party, was banned.[16]
In 1979, the military dictatorship that had dismantled the historical PTB decided to revoke its legislation which enforced a two-party state. Soon thereafter, thesocial-democratic wing of the original PTB, led by Leonel Brizola, attempted to recreate the party, but the military government instead awarded the name to a group led byIvete Vargas, niece ofGetúlio Vargas, who became the president of the party. Many of her group were politicians who did not follow PTB's historical labourist ideology, conservatives and even former oppositors of the party. Leonel Brizola instead led his faction to found theDemocratic Labour Party (PDT). This all but ensured that the PTB would abandonleftist politics, ultimately embracing centrist or slightly right-leaning politics.[17][11]
At thelegislative elections of October 6, 2002, the party won 26 out of 513 seats in theChamber of Deputies and 3 out of 81 seats in the Senate.
In the 1989, a small dissident faction of moderate social democrats and populists abandoned the PTB and founded theLabour Party of Brazil (PTdoB), which was renamed toAvante in 2017.[18]
Before the2010 presidential election, PTB participated in the coalition government of formerPresidentLuiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and did not field presidential candidates. The party, however, did not support Lula's candidate to succeed him,Dilma Rousseff (herself a former historical PTB/PDT member), as it embarked onPSDBJosé Serra's failed campaign for president.[19]
Since 2018 with the rise ofconservatism andBolsonarism in Brazil (a phenomenon known as the 'conservative wave'), the party started a strong turn to right-wing politics, declaring itself an openly conservative party, supporting the government ofJair Bolsonaro and his positions.[11][20] SenatorArmando Monteiro left the party in 2021, calling it a "Bolsonarist cult".[21]
In 2020, Jair Bolsonaro left his original partySocial Liberal Party (PSL) and failed to form his ownAlliance for Brazil, PTB was one of the parties that had extensive negotiations for affiliating him, which helped as Bolsonaro was previously a PTB member from 2003 to 2005, but the negotiations ended up failing.[13]
For the2022 Brazilian general election, PTB initially choseRoberto Jefferson as their presidential candidate, but on 1 September 2022, the Superior Electoral Court denied Jefferson's candidacy as it ruled him ineligible for public office until 24 December 2023 due to a prior criminal conviction. After this ruling, the party nominated Padre Kelmon Souza for president, a self-proclaimedorthodox priest who is not part of theBrazilian Orthodox Churches, and Luiz Cláudio Gamonal — anevangelical pastor — for vice president.[22] Kelmon was accused of beginning an "auxiliary line" for Jair Bolsonaro, making a campaign for Bolsonaro and not himself, and at debates exclusively attacking Bolsonaro's opponents and praising his presidency.[23] When Jefferson previously had announced he would launch his candidacy, he announced that it would be to support the campaign of Jair Bolsonaro.[24]
After the 2022 general elections, PTB elected only one federal deputy, failing to break through theelectoral threshold and thus cutting access toparty subsidies and free advertisement on television. On October, the PTB assembly voted to merge with right-wing conservative partyPatriota in order to form a party tentatively titledMais Brasil ("More Brazil").[25] The merger was approved by theSuperior Electoral Court on 9 November 2023 and the party is now called theDemocratic Renewal Party.[26]
Current members
Former members
| Election | Chamber of Deputies | Federal Senate | Role in government | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Seats | +/– | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | ||
| 1982 | 1,829,055 | 4.45% | 13 / 479 | New | 1,909,452 | 4.53% | 0 / 25 | New | Opposition |
| 1986 | 2,110,467 | 4.46% | 17 / 487 |  4 | N/A | N/A | 0 / 49 |  0 | Opposition |
| 1990 | 2,277,882 | 5.62% | 38 / 502 | 21 | N/A | N/A | 4 / 31 | 4 | Coalition |
| 1994 | 2,379,773 | 5.21% | 31 / 513 | 7 | 4,015,701 | 4.19% | 3 / 54 | 1 | Coalition |
| 1998 | 3,768,260 | 5.66% | 31 / 513 | 0 | 2,449,479 | 3.96% | 1 / 81 | 2 | Coalition |
| 2002 | 4,052,111 | 4.63% | 26 / 513 | 5 | 5,190,032 | 3.38% | 3 / 81 | 2 | Coalition |
| 2006 | 4,397,743 | 4.72% | 22 / 513 | 4 | 2,676,469 | 3.17% | 4 / 81 | 1 | Coalition |
| 2010 | 4,039,239 | 4.18% | 21 / 513 | 1 | 7,999,589 | 4,69% | 6 / 81 | 2 | Coalition |
| 2014 | 3,914,193 | 4.02% | 25 / 513 | 4 | 2,803,999 | 3,14% | 3 / 81 | 3 | Coalition |
| 2018 | 2,022,719 | 2.06% | 10 / 513 | 15 | 1,899,838 | 1.11% | 3 / 81 | 3 | Coalition |
| 2022 | 1,433,638 | 1.30% | 1 / 513 | 9 | 3,621,532 | 3.56% | 0 / 81 | 3 | Opposition |
