Social Democratic Party Partido Social Democrático | |
|---|---|
 | |
| President | Gilberto Kassab |
| Founder | Gilberto Kassab |
| Founded | 21 March 2011 (2011-03-21) |
| Split from | Democrats (mainly) PSDB (minority) |
| Newspaper | Diálogos no Espaço Democrático |
| Think tank | Espaço Democrático[1] |
| Youth wing | PSD Jovem |
| Women's wing | PSD Mulher |
| Membership | 411,608[2] |
| Ideology | Big tent[3][4][5] |
| Political position | Centre[6][7] tocentre-right[8][9] |
| Colours | Blue,green, andyellow |
| TSE Identification Number | 55 |
| Chamber of Deputies | 42 / 513 |
| Federal Senate | 16 / 81 |
| City Councillors | 5,694 / 56,810 |
| Website | |
| psd | |
TheSocial Democratic Party (Portuguese:Partido Social Democrático,PSD) is apolitical party in Brazil led byGilberto Kassab and uniting dissidents from various political parties, especially theDemocrats,Brazilian Social Democracy Party andParty of National Mobilization.[10]
The party has become a major force forcentrism in Brazil and commonly unites with both left-wing and right-wing parties. In this way, the party managed to have members occupying positions in ministries and important secretariats in the governments of presidentsDilma Rousseff,Michel Temer,Jair Bolsonaro, andLuiz Inácio Lula da Silva. As such, PSD has been considered by political scientists as abig tent party,[3] which is part of theCentrão.[11] While one of the youngest parties in Brazil, PSD's pragmatic "physiological" nature has allowed it to grow exponentinally, becoming one of the largest parties in Brazil. After the2024 Brazilian municipal elections it became the party with the most number of mayors in Brazil.[12]
The party was founded in 2011 bySão Paulo mayorGilberto Kassab, bringing together dissidents from Kassab’s former party, theDemocrats (DEM), and from theBrazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), as well as some members from theProgressive Party (PP), theBrazilian Labour Party (PTB), and others. It united politicians who opposed their parties’ “automatic opposition” to theWorkers' Party (PT) and advocated for a more pragmatic stance, open to dialogue with the government, while positioning itself as an alternative to theBrazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), as the traditional force inbig tent politics.[13] The foundation was criticized by members of the opposition political parties, primarily the Democrats (DEM), as supporting the government. Many Democrats members accused the PSD of being created by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to destroy the DEM and deliver on a promise made toWorkers' Party (PT) supporters to "exterminate the DEM from the Brazilian political scenario".[14] The party was criticized for having a vague program, making references toeconomic freedom, political reform and welfare, and being hard to differentiate from other political parties except those on thehard left. According to Kassab, "We are neither a right-wing party nor a left-wing nor a centrist party".[15]
In many Brazilian states, the PSD took aliberal stance on economics and had good election results. The party has good relationships with major political parties such as thesocial democraticBrazilian Socialist Party, thenational conservativeProgressive Party, thecentristBrazilian Labour Party, theChristian democraticBrazilian Republican Party and theprogressiveCitizenship. Since its inception, the party has been associated with fusions with other parties, primarily the PP and PSB. It has endured on the Brazilian political scene, and has more representation than any political party other than the major ones. The party chaired theFinance Ministry of Brazil in Michel Temer's government, and is a major force in Brazilian politics.
However, in thestate of Bahia, the party is a long-term partner of the major left-wingWorkers' Party, having the running mate in the gubernatorial tickets of Rui Costa and each party supporting the other in the senate elections, withOtto Alencar andAngelo Coronel being the senators of Bahia together with thePetistaJaques Wagner.
The PSD supported theimpeachment of Dilma Rousseff.[16]
PSD elected several senators and some governors in the BrazilianCentro-Sul region in 2018, with the support ofJair Bolsonaro.
Soon after its foundation, the national president of the party, Gilberto Kassab (SP), stated: "It will not be on the right, it will not be on the left, nor on the center". The foundational purpose of the PSD is the satisfaction of the interests of the lower class that had risen to the middle class position during the Workers' Party governments.[17] The then-vice-president of the party,Guilherme Affif Domingos (SP) wrote a document with 12 party commitments, among them:
However, according to political scientist Rui Maluf, the absence of specific programmatic content reveals that the PSD has a typicallycatch-all organizational nature and that its foundation reflects the dissatisfaction of its staff with previous parties, mostly from theDemocratas party.[3]
| Year | Candidate for President | Candidate for Vice-President | Coalition | Percentage | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | .jpg) | _-_cortada.jpg) | With the Power of the People | 54,501,118 (51.64%) | Elected 2nd Round |
| 2018 |  |  | To Unite Brazil PL,DEM,Solidarity andPPS) | 5,096,350 (4,76%) | Lost 4th in 1st Round |
| Election | Chamber of Deputies | Federal Senate | Role in government | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Seats | +/– | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | ||
| 2014 | 5,967,953 | 6.14% | 36 / 513 | New | 7,147,245 | 8.00% | 3 / 81 | New | Coalition |
| 2018 | 5,749,008 | 5.85% | 34 / 513 |  2 | 8,202,342 | 4.79% | 7 / 81 |  4 | Coalition |
| 2022 | 8,322,183 | 7,55% | 42 / 513 | 8 | 11,312,512 | 11.12% | 10 / 81 | 3 | Coalition (2022–2023) |
| Independent (2023–2024) | |||||||||
| Coalition (2024–2025) | |||||||||
| Confidence and Supply (2025–present) | |||||||||
| Sources:Election Resources,Dados Eleitorais do Brasil (1982–2006) | |||||||||
(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.
| Preceded by | Numbers of Brazilian Official Political Parties 55 – SDP (PSD) | Succeeded by |
