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Liberal Party (Brazil, 2006)

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Not to be confused with Liberal Party (1985–2006) or Liberal Party (1831–1889).

Liberal Party
Partido Liberal
PresidentValdemar Costa Neto[1]
Honorary PresidentJair Bolsonaro[1]
General SecretaryMariucia Tozatti[1]
First TreasurerJucivaldo Salazar[1]
International SecretaryEduardo Bolsonaro[2]
Founded26 October 2006; 18 years ago (26 October 2006)[3]
Registered19 December 2006; 18 years ago (19 December 2006)[4]
Merger ofLiberal Party (1985)
PRONA
HeadquartersEdifício Liberty Mall Asa Norte, Brasília, Federal District
Think tankInstituto Fundação Alvaro Valle[5]
Youth wingPL Jovem
Women's wingPL Mulher
Membership (2023)Decrease 902,250[6]
IdeologyBolsonarism
Populism[7]
Nationalism[7]
Ultraconservatism[8]
Historical:
Conservatism[9][10][11]
Political positionFar-right[12][13]
Historical:
Centre-right[18] to right-wing[22]
Colours  Green
  Yellow
  Blue
  White
Slogan"The people have chosen and made PL the largest party of Brazil"
TSE Identification Number22
Governorships
2 / 27
Mayors
517 / 5,568
Federal Senate
15 / 81
Chamber of Deputies
95 / 513
Mercosur Parliament
7 / 38
State Assemblies
129 / 1,024
City Councillors
4,929 / 56,810
Party flag
Website
partidoliberal.org.br
This article is part of a series on
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The Liberal Party (Portuguese: Partido Liberal, PL) is a far-right political party in Brazil. From its foundation in 2006 until 2019, it was called the Party of the Republic (Portuguese: Partido da República, PR).

The party was founded in 2006 as a merger of the 1985 Liberal Party and the Party of the Reconstruction of the National Order (PRONA),[23] as a big tent, centre-right party,[24][15] and was considered part of the Centrão, a bloc of parties without consistent ideological orientation that support different sides of the political spectrum in order to gain political privileges.[24][25][26] As such, it supported the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff— members of the center-left Workers' Party—and Michel Temer.[27]

In 2021, it became the base of the then-president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, for the 2022 Brazilian general election. This led to many of his supporters joining the party, which thereby became the largest bloc in the National Congress of Brazil,[28] and the Liberal Party took a general shift to far-right.

History

[edit]

The Party of the Republic was founded on 26 October 2006, by the merger of the old Liberal Party — which initially started as a classical liberal party,[23] but slowly shifted towards social conservatism after it became influenced by evangelicals[23] — and the Party of the Reconstruction of the National Order (Partido da Reedificação da Ordem Nacional, PRONA) — a far-right nationalist party.[29][30] The merger was performed in order to surpass the electoral threshold of 5%,[23][a] but also as a rebranding as the Liberal Party was heavily implicated in the Mensalão scandal.[23][32]

Historically, the party was a pragmatic party of business interests, supporting the candidacies of Lula and Dilma from the Workers' Party (PT) for the sake of moderating their presidencies. It generally supported a form of Lulism, which had less economic regulation. As such, the Party of the Republic was considered part of the Centrão.[25][26] PR's predecessor, the Liberal Party, was heavily involved in the Mensalão — a vote-buying scheme done by the Workers' Party in order to gain support in the National Congress,[32] and Lula's Vice President José Alencar was a member of the old PL.

During the 2010 elections, the Party of the Republic focused on the parliamentary elections; it won 41 of the 513 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 4 of the 81 Senate seats. One of PR's elected politicians was professional humorist and professional clown Tiririca, who became the State of São Paulo's most voted representative with more than one million votes, and due to Brazil's proportional voting system, Tiririca thus supported PR in electing a sizeable amount of representatives.[33]

Sergio Victor Tamer, founder of the Party of the Republic, was the party's president from 2006 to 2014. Alfredo Nascimento succeeded Tamer as president of the PR until April 2016, when he resigned due to party leadership not supporting the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff. However, 26 of the PR's MPs did vote for her impeachment.[34]

After that move by its MPs, the party took a more rightward turn away from its bipartisan past and supported Geraldo Alckmin's failed campaign in the 2018 Brazilian presidential election.

On 7 May 2019, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) voted to approve a motion of the party to change its name back to Liberal Party (PL).[35][36] According to party leadership, the change was done in order to return to the party's roots as body defending economic liberalism, Free market and low intervention of the state in the economy. The social positions of the party remained socially conservative, however.[37] Other specialists point it out as part of a national tendency of parties in Brazil rebranding in order to get better perception from the electorate due a process of loss of trust caused by the Brazilian political crisis,[38] and also riding a wave of pro-liberalism sentiment in Brazil.[37]

The Liberal Party provokes controversy in 2020 by nominating an openly neo-Nazi activist as a municipal candidate in the town of Pomerode.[39]

On 30 November 2021, President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro and his son Senator Flávio Bolsonaro — who were previously affiliated with the Social Liberal Party (PSL) and left it, attempting to create the Alliance for Brazil party with no avail[40] — joined the PL in preparation for the 2022 Brazilian general election (as presidential candidates must be affiliated with a political party). He had previously considered returning to the Progressists (PP),[41] the Social Christian Party (PSC), Brazilian Labour Party (PTB), as well negotiation with number of other smaller and/or right-wing parties.[42] Bolsonaro's affiliation to the PL has been pointed out by analysts as a consolidation of an alliance with the Centrão.[43]

In the 2022 general election, the party had formed a presidential ticket and many gubernatorial tickets with a hard right coalition of the Republicans and the Progressitas (PP). The election was a great success to the party, resulting in PL becoming the largest bloc in the National Congress of Brazil with 99 seats and the Federal Senate with 13 seats.[44] According to some analysts, the party had been divided between two wide factions: one with traditional Centrão politicians loyal to party president Valdemar Costa Neto, and a Bolsonarist one, composing about two-thirds of the PL's elected bench, with Bolsonaro’s followers from the PSL.[45][46] In an interview, Neto revealed he feared that in case Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is elected president, there would be a split in the party as the traditional faction might want to align themselves with a possible PT government, while the Bolsonarist branch would form an opposition.[46]

Ideology

[edit]

The Liberal Party is a big tent conservative party. The Liberal Party used to be described as centre-right or right-wing,[24][b] but since Bolsonaro's incorporation the party has moved to the far-right of the political spectrum.

Though previously a party of national liberalism, before its merger with PRONA, the party has increasingly been affiliated with the anti-democratic right in Brazil. This has come as a result of the party's joining around the political philosophy of Jair Bolsonaro, who was initially affiliated with the PSL and other socially conservative parties. With the questioning of democracy, foreign policy, and the anti-democratic statements of Bolsonaro, the party seems to have re-embraced some of the tendencies of the head of PRONA Eneas Carneiro, a noted supporter of LaRoucheism, the previous military dictatorship, and a right-wing opposition to neoliberalism.[41]

Generally the party is right-wing populist, economically liberal, but socially anti-liberal and pro-Evangelical, aligning with the ideology of Bolsonaro. The party is agrarian, pro-military, and pro-life. The party promotes a generally more economically open form of Brazilian nationalism than Carneiro.[48] The party has frequently supported Bolsonaro's attacks on the media and the electoral system in Brazil.[49][50][51]

Notable members

[edit]
2016
Jair Bolsonaro, a recent party member and President of Brazil visiting the Federal Senate

Electoral results

[edit]

Presidential elections

[edit]
Year President Vice-president Coalition Results
2010 Dilma Rousseff[c] Michel Temer[d] For Brazil to Keep on Changing[e] 55,752,529 (56.05%) Won
2014 Dilma Rousseff[f] Michel Temer[g] With the Strength of the People[h] 54,495,459 (51.64%) Won
2018 Geraldo Alckmin[i] Ana Amélia Lemos[j] To unite Brazil[k] 5,096,350 (4.76%) Lost
2022 Jair Bolsonaro[l] Walter Braga Netto[l] For the good of Brazil[m] 58,197,923 (49.1%) Lost

Legislative elections

[edit]
Election Chamber of Deputies Federal Senate Status
Votes % Seats +/– Votes % Seats +/–
2010 7,311,655 7.57
42 / 513
 New 4,649,024 2.73
4 / 81
 New Coalition
2014 5,635,519 5.79
34 / 513
 Decrease 8 696,462 0.78
4 / 81
 Steady 0 Coalition
2018 5,224,591 5.31
33 / 513
 Decrease 1 3,130,082 1.83
2 / 81
 Decrease 2 Coalition
2022 18,228,958 16.54
99 / 513
 Increase 66 25,278,764 24.86
13 / 81
 Increase 11 Opposition

See also

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ The electoral threshold (Cláusula de Barreira) was first passed as a law in 1995 for the 2006 Brazilian general election, but a coalition of smaller parties petitioned the Supreme Federal Court to block it alleging it was inconstitutional.[31] The electoral threshold only started taking place after the 2018 Brazilian general election.
  2. ^ Experts describe Jair Bolsonaro, a former Liberal Party candidate in the 2022 presidential election in Brazil, as a 'far-right', but at the same time, the Liberal Party is described as a 'centre-right'.[47]
  3. ^ PT
  4. ^ PMDB
  5. ^ PT, PMDB, PR, PSB, PDT, PCdoB, PSC, PRB, PTC and PTN
  6. ^ PT
  7. ^ PMDB
  8. ^ PT, PMDB, PSD, PP, PR, PROS, PDT, PCdoB and PRB
  9. ^ PSDB
  10. ^ PP
  11. ^ PSDB, PP, PTB, PSD, PRB, PR, DEM, Solidarity and PPS
  12. ^ a b PL
  13. ^ PL, Republicans and PP

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d "Membros da Executiva Nacional". Partido Liberal. 9 February 2019. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  2. ^ "Eduardo Bolsonaro assume Secretaria de Relações Internacionais do PL". UOL. 12 November 2024.
  3. ^ "História do Partido da República (até 2014)". Fundação Getúlio Vargas. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  4. ^ "Partidos políticos registrados no TSE". TSE. Archived from the original on 24 October 2014. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  5. ^ ":: Fundação Alvaro Valle ::". institutoalvarovalle.org.br. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  6. ^ TSE. "Estatísticas do eleitorado – Eleitores filiados". Archived from the original on 9 May 2019. Retrieved 26 August 2023.
  7. ^ a b Vale, Beatriz Franco do; Linhares, Bianca de Freitas (2023). "Populista e/ou Nacionalista? O Discurso de Jair Bolsonaro nas Eleições de 2022". Biblioteca Sophia. Encontros Anuais da Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Ciências Sociais (Anpocs). 47. Se é possível a ocorrência de fenômenos populistas-nacionalistas, isto é, discursos que expressem, ao mesmo tempo, um populismo um nacionalismo, é preciso que a estrutura analítica esteja adaptada a esta possibilidade, pois não é possível que nestes casos realizese, separadamente, uma análise para identificar a lógica populista e outra para identificação de uma lógica nacionalista. Essa fusão pode ser exemplificada no seguinte trecho, extraído do discurso de lançamento de candidatura na convenção do Partido Liberal: [If it is possible for populist-nationalist phenomena to occur, that is, discourses that express both populism and nationalism at the same time, the analytical structure must be adapted to this possibility, since it is not possible to carry out, in these cases, an analysis separately to identify the populist logic and another to identify a nationalist logic. This fusion can be exemplified in the following excerpt, taken from the speech launching the candidacy at the Liberal Party convention:]
  8. ^ "Brazil Presidential Election 2022: Lula vs Bolsonaro". France 24. 27 September 2022. Retrieved 6 February 2025. Jair Bolsonaro joined the small ultra-conservative Liberal Party in 2021.
  9. ^ Gustavo A. Flores-Macias, ed. (2012). After Neoliberalism?: The Left and Economic Reforms in Latin America. Oxford University Press, USA. p. 134. ISBN 978-0-19989167-2. …Lula's PT government enjoyed the congressional support of the conservative Liberal Party (PL), the vice… system is fragmented but in disarray—the comparatively institutionalized party system in Brazil makes fragmentation more…
  10. ^ Kristin N. Wylie, ed. (2018). Party Institutionalization and Women's Representation in Democratic Brazil. Cambridge University Press. p. 168. ISBN 978-1-108429795. …While at the helm of the small conservative Liberal Party (PL), Pedrosa's brother suggested she help the party fill the 30 percent…
  11. ^ Lee J. Alston; Marcus André Melo; Bernardo Mueller, eds. (2016). Brazil in Transition: Beliefs, Leadership, and Institutional Change. Princeton University Press. p. 126. ISBN 978-1-40088094-2. To placate the suspicions of the business elites, Lula invited as his running mate a prominent politician from the conservative Liberal Party.
  12. ^
  13. ^
  14. ^ "O que significa esquerda, direita e centro na política?". Estadão.
  15. ^ a b "Bolsonaro to join center-right PL party to take on leftist Lula". Reuters. 8 November 2021. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  16. ^ Gomez Bruera, Hernan (2013). Lula, the Workers' Party and the Governability Dilemma in Brazil. Routledge. p. 77.
  17. ^ "Brazil's Bolsonaro officially joins centre-right Liberal Party". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  18. ^ [14][15][16][17]
  19. ^ "Partidos em números: PP e PL". Pindograma. 8 December 2020. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  20. ^ Congresso em Foco (3 March 2021). "Radar do Congresso: Governismo". Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  21. ^ "Bolsonaro to join right-wing Liberal Party for re-election campaign". The Brazilian Report. 8 November 2021. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  22. ^ [19][20][21]
  23. ^ a b c d e Brasil, CPDOC-Centro de Pesquisa e Documentação História Contemporânea do. "PARTIDO LIBERAL (PL)". CPDOC - Centro de Pesquisa e Documentação de História Contemporânea do Brasil (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  24. ^ a b c joaogado (8 December 2020). "Partidos em números: PP e PL". Pindograma. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  25. ^ a b "Bolsonaro se filia ao PL e volta ao centrão em evento com ataques a Lula e Moro". Folha de S.Paulo (in Brazilian Portuguese). 30 November 2021. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  26. ^ a b "'Vocês votaram num cara do Centrão', diz Bolsonaro sobre críticas por ingresso no PL". O Globo (in Brazilian Portuguese). 10 January 2022. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  27. ^ Estadão. "Basômetro: acompanhe o governismo na Câmara". Estadão (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  28. ^ "Bancada dos partidos — Portal da Câmara dos Deputados". www.camara.leg.br. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  29. ^ Couto, André. "Partido de Reedificação da Ordem Nacional (PRONA)". Centro de Pesquisa e Documentação de História Contemporânea do Brasil (CPDOC) (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  30. ^ "Partido da Republica (PR)". CPDOC - Centro de Pesquisa e Documentação de História Contemporânea do Brasil (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 10 September 2022.
  31. ^ "Folha Online - Brasil - STF derruba cláusula de barreira - 07/12/2006". www1.folha.uol.com.br.
  32. ^ a b "Christina diz que presidente do PL concebeu o "mensalão" - Notícias". Portal da Câmara dos Deputados (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  33. ^ "O "Efeito Tiririca" e a importância da votação para deputado". Agência Brasil (in Brazilian Portuguese). 4 October 2018. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
  34. ^ "Partido da República" (in Brazilian Portuguese). 21 June 2018. Retrieved 10 September 2022.
  35. ^ "Aprovada alteração do nome do Partido da República (PR) para Partido Liberal (PL)" (in Portuguese). Tribunal Superior Eleitoral. 7 May 2019. Archived from the original on 11 June 2019. Retrieved 2 June 2019.
  36. ^ "Partidos políticos registrados no TSE". Tribuna Superior Eleitoral. Archived from the original on 17 August 2022. Retrieved 10 September 2022.
  37. ^ a b "PR volta a ser PL para retornar às suas origens, anuncia deputado". Campo Grande News (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  38. ^ "Dez partidos políticos mudaram de nome nos últimos quatro anos | A Gazeta". www.agazeta.com.br (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  39. ^ "Dans le Brésil de Jair Bolsonaro, des néonazis de plus en plus visibles et décomplexés". Le Monde.fr (in French). 11 October 2021.
  40. ^ "Idealizado por Bolsonaro, partido Aliança pelo Brasil acaba por falta de assinaturas". CNN Brasil (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 3 October 2022.
  41. ^ a b "Win or lose, Jair Bolsonaro poses a threat to Brazilian democracy". The Economist. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 10 September 2022.
  42. ^ "Bolsonaro negocia com DC, PMN e PSC e deve anunciar novo partido este mês". O Globo (in Brazilian Portuguese). 8 March 2021. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
  43. ^ "Bolsonaro se filia ao PL e retoma 'casamento' com o centrão". noticias.uol.com.br (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 27 October 2022.
  44. ^ "Direita mantém crescimento, esquerda oscila negativamente e centro afunda". JOTA Info (in Brazilian Portuguese). 3 October 2022. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  45. ^ "Cerca de dois terços da bancada eleita do PL são mais Bolsonaro que Valdemar". www.metropoles.com (in Brazilian Portuguese). 21 October 2022. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  46. ^ a b "Valdemar prevê racha no PL se Lula vencer". www.metropoles.com (in Brazilian Portuguese). 28 October 2022. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  47. ^ "Brazil's Next Elections Bring the Risk of Social Unrest". New Lines Institute. 11 August 2022. Retrieved 3 February 2023. Brazil's general election will be held Oct. 2. Even though the official presidential campaign period begins Aug. 16, incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, of the center-right Liberal Party, and former President Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva of the Workers' Party are the presumptive frontrunners. ... The Brazilian constituency and the international public know the frontrunners well. Bolsonaro, who is now running as a member of the center-right Liberal Party after being forced to join a political party to run for re-election, aligns closer with a far-right political ideology.
  48. ^ "Partido de Reedificacção de Ordem Nacional (PRONA)". CPDOC - Centro de Pesquisa e Documentação de História Contemporânea do Brasil (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 14 September 2022.
  49. ^ Fishman, Andrew (2 June 2022). "Lula Leads, but Bolsonaro Could Still Win Reelection in Brazil". The Intercept. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
  50. ^ "Citizens' manifesto declares Brazilian democracy facing 'immense danger'". the Guardian. 11 August 2022. Retrieved 10 September 2022.
  51. ^ "Brazilians fear return to dictatorship as 'deranged' Bolsonaro trails in polls". the Guardian. 9 August 2022. Retrieved 10 September 2022.
Preceded by Numbers of Brazilian Official Political Parties
22 – LP (PL) 		Succeeded by
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