The Brazilian Democratic Movement ( pt, Movimento Democrático Brasileiro, MDB) is a Brazilian political party. It is considered a "
big tent party
A big tent party, or catch-all party, is a term used in reference to a political party's policy of permitting or encouraging a broad spectrum of views among its members. This is in contrast to other kinds of parties, which defend a determined i ...
" and it is one of the parties with the greatest representation throughout the national territory, with the most numbers of
senators,
mayors
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well as ...
and
city councillors, always having formed a large plurality at the National Congress since 1988, and also has the largest number of affiliates, with 2,131,547 members as of 2022.
Originally, the MDB was founded on 1965 as part of an enforced
two party system by the
Brazilian military dictatorship
The military dictatorship in Brazil ( pt, ditadura militar) was established on 1 April 1964, after a coup d'état by the Brazilian Armed Forces, with support from the United States government, against President João Goulart. The Brazilian dic ...
, providing an official, if controlled, opposition. With political opening, on 1980 the former members of the MDB created the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party ( pt, Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro, PMDB), name which was known until 2018. It was the party of former
Presidents of Brazil
The president of Brazil ( pt, Presidente do Brasil), officially the president of the Federative Republic of Brazil ( pt, Presidente da República Federativa do Brasil) or simply the ''President of the Republic'', is the head of state and head o ...
Tancredo Neves,
José Sarney
José Sarney de Araújo Costa (; born José Ribamar Ferreira de Araújo Costa; 24 April 1930) is a Brazilian politician, lawyer, and writer who served as 31st president of Brazil from 1985 to 1990. He briefly served as the 20th vice president o ...
,
Itamar Franco
Itamar Augusto Cautiero Franco (; 28 June 19302 July 2011) was a Brazilian politician who served as the 33rd president of Brazil from 29 December 1992 to 31 December 1994. Previously, he was the 21st vice president of Brazil from 1990 until th ...
and
Michel Temer
Michel Miguel Elias Temer Lulia (; born 23 September 1940) is a Brazilian politician, lawyer and writer who served as the 37th president of Brazil from 31 August 2016 to 31 December 2018. He took office after the impeachment and removal from off ...
, as well providing support for the governments of
Fernando Henrique Cardoso,
Luíz Inácio Lula da Silva and
Dilma Rousseff
Dilma Vana Rousseff (; born 14 December 1947) is a Brazilian economist and politician who served as the 36th president of Brazil, holding the position from 2011 until her impeachment and removal from office on 31 August 2016. She is the first ...
, as well as unofficial support for the government of
Jair Bolsonaro
Jair Messias Bolsonaro (; born 21 March 1955) is a Brazilian politician and retired military officer who has been the 38th president of Brazil since 1 January 2019. He was elected in 2018 as a member of the Social Liberal Party, which he turn ...
.
After the redemocratization of Brazil, MDB became a
big tent party
A big tent party, or catch-all party, is a term used in reference to a political party's policy of permitting or encouraging a broad spectrum of views among its members. This is in contrast to other kinds of parties, which defend a determined i ...
without a clear ideological program, seeking to have many members from various positions and different interest groups under its wing.
As such, MDB has been criticized and accused of being a
cronyistic "physiological party",
aiming at ensuring proximity to the
executive branch
The Executive, also referred as the Executive branch or Executive power, is the term commonly used to describe that part of government which enforces the law, and has overall responsibility for the governance of a state.
In political systems ...
in order to guarantee advantages and allow them to distribute privileges through
clientelistic networks.
This has been shown by the support to multiple
governing parties since the beginning of the
Sixth Brazilian Republic
Sixth is the ordinal form of the number six.
* The Sixth Amendment, to the U.S. Constitution
* A keg of beer, equal to 5 U.S. gallons or barrel
* The fraction
Music
* Sixth interval (music)s:
** major sixth, a musical interval
** minor s ...
.
As such, the MDB has been considered one of the core members of the ''
Centrão
In Brazilian politics, the ''centrão'' ( – ) refers to a group of political parties that do not have a specific or consistent ideological orientation and aim at ensuring proximity to the executive branch in order to guarantee advantages and all ...
''.
History
Under military rule from 1965 to 1979, Brazil had a legally enforced two party system, with supporters of the regime gathered under the
National Renewal Alliance Party (ARENA) umbrella, and the official opposition making up the MDB. Essentially, the MDB comprised nearly all of the
Brazilian Labour Party and the main body of the
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
For ...
.
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.
From 1979 onwards,
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 the
Democratic Social Party (PDS). Many of the MDB left into multiple new opposition parties such as the
Democratic Labour Party (PDT),
Brazilian Labour Party (PTB) and the
Workers' 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. The group which remained reorganized the old MDB as the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party ('' pt, Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro''; PMDB).
The MDB had been a
big tent
A big tent party, or catch-all party, is a term used in reference to a political party's policy of permitting or encouraging a broad spectrum of views among its members. This is in contrast to other kinds of parties, which defend a determined i ...
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 as
José Sarney
José Sarney de Araújo Costa (; born José Ribamar Ferreira de Araújo Costa; 24 April 1930) is a Brazilian politician, lawyer, and writer who served as 31st president of Brazil from 1985 to 1990. He briefly served as the 20th vice president o ...
to liberals such as
Pedro Simon, leftists like
Roberto Requião, populists like
Íris Resende, nationalists like
Orestes Quércia and the former
guerrilla movement
MR-8
8th October Revolutionary Movement (''Movimento Revolucionário 8 de Outubro'', MR8) was a Marxist political organization that took part in armed struggle against the Military dictatorship in Brazil. It was formed in 1964 among college students ...
.
In 1985, party leader
Tancredo Neves won the presidential election, but died before taking office. His running mate
José Sarney
José Sarney de Araújo Costa (; born José Ribamar Ferreira de Araújo Costa; 24 April 1930) is a Brazilian politician, lawyer, and writer who served as 31st president of Brazil from 1985 to 1990. He briefly served as the 20th vice president o ...
, 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 only
president of Brazil
The president of Brazil ( pt, Presidente do Brasil), officially the president of the Federative Republic of Brazil ( pt, Presidente da República Federativa do Brasil) or simply the ''President of the Republic'', is the head of state and head o ...
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 legislative
elections 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 the
2006 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.
In
2010
File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...
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
Itamar Augusto Cautiero Franco (; 28 June 19302 July 2011) was a Brazilian politician who served as the 33rd president of Brazil from 29 December 1992 to 31 December 1994. Previously, he was the 21st vice president of Brazil from 1990 until th ...
,
Orestes Quércia,
Michel Temer
Michel Miguel Elias Temer Lulia (; born 23 September 1940) is a Brazilian politician, lawyer and writer who served as the 37th president of Brazil from 31 August 2016 to 31 December 2018. He took office after the impeachment and removal from off ...
,
Anthony Garotinho
Anthony William Matheus de Oliveira (born 18 April 1960), also known as Anthony Garotinho, is a Brazilian politician, radio broadcaster and convicted felon. He legally adopted his stage name "Garotinho" (Little Boy in Portuguese), originally a n ...
,
José Sarney
José Sarney de Araújo Costa (; born José Ribamar Ferreira de Araújo Costa; 24 April 1930) is a Brazilian politician, lawyer, and writer who served as 31st president of Brazil from 1985 to 1990. He briefly served as the 20th vice president o ...
,
Renan Calheiros
José Renan Vasconcelos Calheiros (; born 16 September 1955) is a Brazilian politician and former President of the Senate of Brazil. He has represented the state of Alagoas in the senate as a member of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party s ...
, 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 the
Workers' Party following accusations against President
Dilma Rousseff
Dilma Vana Rousseff (; born 14 December 1947) is a Brazilian economist and politician who served as the 36th president of Brazil, holding the position from 2011 until her impeachment and removal from office on 31 August 2016. She is the first ...
and former president
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of corruption. The PMDB supported the
impeachment process against Dilma Rousseff
The impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, the 36th president of Brazil, began on 2 December 2015 with a petition for her impeachment being accepted by Eduardo Cunha, then president of the Chamber of Deputies, and continued into late 2016. Dilma Rouss ...
. After the impeachment process began, vice president Michel Temer formed a new center-right liberal coalition government with
PSDB 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 ( pt, 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 for
democracy
Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose g ...
, according to party leader,
Romero Jucá. The party announced a program based on
economic liberalism
Economic liberalism is a political and economic ideology that supports a market economy based on individualism and private property in the means of production. Adam Smith is considered one of the primary initial writers on economic libera ...
,
fiscal conservatism
Fiscal conservatism is a political and economic philosophy regarding fiscal policy and fiscal responsibility with an ideological basis in capitalism, individualism, limited government, and ''laissez-faire'' economics.M. O. Dickerson et al., '' ...
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 the
Workers' Party), and even
Renan Calheiros
José Renan Vasconcelos Calheiros (; born 16 September 1955) is a Brazilian politician and former President of the Senate of Brazil. He has represented the state of Alagoas in the senate as a member of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party s ...
, the President of the
Federal 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, Senator
Kátia Abreu of
Tocantins
Tocantins () is one of the 26 states of Brazil. It is the newest state, formed in 1988 and encompassing what had formerly been the northern two-fifths of the state of Goiás. Tocantins covers and had an estimated population of 1,496,880 in 20 ...
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.
The PMDB is the Brazilian political party that received the most
bribes
Bribery is the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official, or other person, in charge of a public or legal duty. With regard to governmental operations, essentially, bribery is "Corru ...
from
Odebrecht
Odebrecht S.A. (), officially known as Novonor, is a Brazilian conglomerate, headquartered in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, consisting of diversified businesses in the fields of engineering, construction, chemicals and petrochemicals. The company ...
. 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".
Ideology
The original MDB was founded as a legal, civil movement of opposition to
Brazilian military government
The military dictatorship in Brazil ( pt, ditadura militar) was established on 1 April 1964, after a coup d'état by the Brazilian Armed Forces, with support from the United States government, against President João Goulart. The Brazilian dict ...
. Without a clear program except the democratization of the country, the party was an umbrella of opponents of military regime, ranging from
liberal conservatives and
Christian democrats
__NOTOC__
Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social tea ...
from parties like
Christian Democratic Party
__NOTOC__
Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social tea ...
and
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
For ...
to former labourists, socialists and communists, of
Brazilian Labour Party,
Brazilian Socialist Party
The Brazilian Socialist Party ( pt-BR, Partido Socialista Brasileiro, PSB) is a political party in Brazil. It was founded in 1947, before being abolished by the military regime in 1965 and re-organised in 1989 after the re-democratisation of Bra ...
and
Brazilian 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 and
social democrats broke with the party in 1988 to form the
Brazilian Social Democracy Party
The Brazilian Social Democracy Party ( pt, Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira, PSDB), also known as the Brazilian Social Democratic Party or the Party of Brazilian Social Democracy,. is a political party in Brazil. As the third largest par ...
, led by
Mario Covas
is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creat ...
,
Fernando Henrique Cardoso,
José Serra and
Franco Montoro
André Franco Montoro (; 14 July 1916 – 16 July 1999) was a Brazilian politician and lawyer. He was born in São Paulo as the son of André de Blois Montoro and Tomásia Alijostes. He was a senator and governor of São Paulo. He was a member ...
. Other PMDB members exited the party to more established left-wing parties, like the new incarnation of
Brazilian Socialist Party
The Brazilian Socialist Party ( pt-BR, Partido Socialista Brasileiro, PSB) is a political party in Brazil. It was founded in 1947, before being abolished by the military regime in 1965 and re-organised in 1989 after the re-democratisation of Bra ...
,
Communist Party of Brazil
The Communist Party of Brazil ( pt-BR, Partido Comunista do Brasil, PCdoB) is a political party in Brazil. The PCdoB officially adheres to Marxist–Leninist theory. It has national reach and deep penetration in the trade union and studen ...
and
Democratic Labour Party. In 2009, the last left-wing section of the party abandoned it and formed the
Free Fatherland Party, a
far left party descending from the
MR-8
8th October Revolutionary Movement (''Movimento Revolucionário 8 de Outubro'', MR8) was a Marxist political organization that took part in armed struggle against the Military dictatorship in Brazil. It was formed in 1964 among college students ...
guerrilla. Some strong leftists, however, like senator
Roberto 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 governor
Sérgio Cabral Filho
Sérgio de Oliveira Cabral Santos Filho (born January 27, 1963) is a Brazilian politician and a journalist
He was elected governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro in the 2006 Brazilian general election and sworn into office on January 1, 2007 ...
and senator
Renan Calheiros
José Renan Vasconcelos Calheiros (; born 16 September 1955) is a Brazilian politician and former President of the Senate of Brazil. He has represented the state of Alagoas in the senate as a member of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party s ...
, established a neutral political stance, sometimes described as "
physiological
Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemica ...
" 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.
Electoral history
Presidential elections
Legislative elections
References
{{Authority control
1981 establishments in Brazil
Centrist parties in Brazil
Centre-right parties
Liberal parties in Brazil
Political parties established in 1981
Political parties in Brazil