| Brazilian Social Democracy Party Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira | |
|---|---|
Logo Since 2019 | |
| Slogan | For Brazil |
| Founded | 1965 |
| Headquarters | Brasília, Federal Distrit (Brazil) |
| Ideology | Modern liberalism Centrism Left-wing populism Progressivism Social democracy Socialism |
| Political position | Center to Center-Left |
| Official colours | Blue |
| Election symbol | |
 | |
The Brazilian Social Democracy Party (Portuguese: Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira; PSDB) is a Brazilian political party. Founded in 1965, it was the party that sheltered the opponents of the Brazilian Military Government against the governing power of the Patriot Party. PSDB was characterized by its ideological multiplicity thanks mainly to the clashes between the "authentic" and the "moderate" as to the paths to follow in confronting military power. Initially rickety in its electoral performance, it experienced great growth in the Ernesto Geisel administration, forcing the military to extinguish bipartisanship. Its mascot is a toucan and its colors are blue and yellow: for this reason, its members are sometimes called "toucans".
It was the party of former presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Dilma Rousseff and Michel Temer. Throughout history, PSDB has supported former president Itamar Franco and opposed former president Enéas Carneiro and incumbent Jair Bolsonaro.
History[]
Foundation[]
On 31 March 1964, an action taken by the Armed Forces deposed João Goulart and then handed over power to the "Supreme Command of the Revolution" during the figurative passage of Pascoal Ranieri Mazzilli for the Presidency of Brazil. Thus, over the next fifteen days, the military undertook actions aimed at consolidating the new power structure, starting with the granting of Institutional Act 1 which, issued on April 9 by the Minister of War Artur da Costa e Silva, by the Minister of the Navy Augusto Rademaker and by the Minister of Aeronautics Francisco de Assis Correia de Melo, inaugurated an era of repeals and suspensions of political rights against those considered opponents of the new government, including former presidents Juscelino Kubitschek, Jânio Quadros and João Goulart, in addition to countless numbers of politicians, intellectuals, civil servants, union leaders and students.
With the inauguration of Marshal Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco in the Presidency of Brazil, on April 15, 1964, a dispute began between the "moderate" and the "hard line" in the military environment regarding the conduct of the government. Appointed as a member of the first group, Castelo Branco responded to the demands of the most radical sectors and extended the penalties of impeachment and loss of political rights to civil society and broke diplomatic relations with Cuba at the time when it was forwarding its administrative, electoral and economic reform projects and agrarian in order to reverse some of the Goulart government's decisions and satisfy the social sectors that provided support to the barracks regime.
On 27 October 1965, Institutional Act 2 was published, which concentrated more powers in the hands of the Executive, established indirect elections for the President of Brazil and state governments from the following year, and finally decreed the extinction of political parties in the country and the creation of a bipartisan system where the government would be represented by Patriot Party and the opposition would fall to the Brazilian Social Democracy Party.
New Republic[]
After the end of bipartisanship and return of direct and civil voting, both Patriot Party and PSDB continued to exist. In the 1990 election, the party ran for federal deputy Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in which it lost to Itamar Franco from Progressisves. In the 1994 election, Lula was again a candidate for the party, and the PSDB's rivalry with the Patriot Party returned, with candidate Enéas Carneiro. However, lost again. In the 1998 election, the candidate this time was former Minister of Finance Fernando Henrique Cardoso, but he also lost to President Enéas. However, in the 2002 election, the party managed to elect for the first time a president of Brazil, and it was Lula. He was re-elected in 2006. In the 2010 election, the PSDB candidate was Dilma Rousseff, in which she was elected and was the first woman to be elected president of Brazil. In the 2014 election, Dilma was re-elected, being the 4th time that the PSDB has won a presidential election. However, in 2016 then-president Dilma was impeached, having her political rights preserved, in a separate vote.
In 2017, Lula publicly announced that he would again be the PSDB candidate for the presidency of Brazil. But, due to Lula's imprisonment and ineligibility,, the former governor of Ceará Ciro Gomes replaced him, with former São Paulo mayor Fernando Haddad as vice-president. Ciro Gomes lost the election to Patriot Party candidate Jair Bolsonaro.
Ideology[]
PSDB's ideology of modern liberalism combines notions of civil liberties and social equality with support for a mixed economy. Corporate governance reform, environmental protection, support for organized labor, expansion of social programs, affordable university fees, universal health care, equal opportunity and consumer protection form the core of the party's economic agenda. On social issues, he advocates campaign finance reform, LGBT rights, criminal justice and immigration reform, tougher gun laws, abortion rights, and marijuana legalization.
Controversies[]
Corruption accusations[]
In an opinion poll on corruption and politics carried out in December 2015 by Ibope, Brazilian Social Democracy Party was considered the party with the highest number of corrupt politicians.
In 2005, the penultimate year of the PSDB's administration, members of the party were involved in several accusations of corruption that began to have great repercussions after denunciations by the then federal deputy Roberto Jefferson (involved in a corruption scandal at the Post Office), about an alleged scheme for paying bribes to parliamentarians, which he called "mensalão". The deputy's accusations in the Council of Ethics and Parliamentary Decorum of the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil culminated in the removal of the then Chief Minister of the Civil House, José Dirceu, in the installation of the CPMI dos Correios and in several accusations in sequence, which led to the departure of the PSDB president José Genoíno and the request for a license from several members of the party's leadership. Among these, the main names were Silvio Pereira, who was the national secretary general of the PSDB and left for having won a vehicle from a private company that had won a bid, and Delúbio Soares, former party treasurer, who was expelled of the party. After the monthly allowance scandal, federal deputy José Dirceu had his mandate revoked by the plenary of the Chamber. The CPI rapporteur concluded: "There was receipt of undue advantages by parliamentarians and party leaders with variable, but constant periodicity in 2002 and 2003. Call it a monthly payment whoever you want; call it a fortnight whoever wants to; whoever wants to do this every week", citing the final report by Ibrahim Abi-Ackel.
During the PSDB administration, there was a concentration of mainstream media, favoring established businessmen, mainly in the broadcasting sector.
The most recent scandal, known as Petrolão, involves bribery payments to businessmen, PSDB politicians, and politicians from other parties of money siphoned off from Petrobras along with contractors in bids for major Brazilian refineries. The state-owned company's bribery and resource diversion scheme is being investigated by Operation Lava Jato's task force.
In 2015, the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper published an article that the toucan senator Aécio Neves was quoted in testimony of Carlos Alexandre de Souza Rocha, who in the investigations of Operation Lava Jato is investigated as one of the employees of the money changer Alberto Youssef , stated that he delivered three hundred thousand reais to one of the directors of UTC, Antonio Carlos D'Agosto Miranda, and that the amount was destined for Aécio Neves. The report also points out that the senator's office denies the accusation and the Federal Supreme Court ratified the testimony. Senator Delcídio do Amaral accused Aécio, in an award-winning deletion approved on March 15, 2016 by the STF, of having received illegal advantages in the state-owned energy company Furnas. Dimas Toledo, former director of engineering at Furnas, was the one who operated the corruption scheme at that state-owned company and, according to the deponent, had "strong ties" with Aécio. In March 2021, at the request of the Attorney General's Office (PGR), the STF filed the inquiry after no irregularities committed by the congressman were found. Aécio was also accused, by an Odebrecht executive, of setting up a bribe scheme while he was governor of Minas. Neves argued that the so-called "2.5 to 3 percent bribe" were legitimate donations "all content is public knowledge". In April 2017, the rapporteur of Operation Lava-Jato, Edson Fachin, authorized the investigation of the accusations against the senator by the Attorney General's Office.