Brazil - Political Parties - Center

PMDB--Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (Partido do Movimento Democratico Brasileiro). The country's largest party for many years, it suffered defections in the 1989 campaign, and by 2010 was a party known for representing nothing much more than the desire to stay in power.

The PMDB is a big tent party composed of a wide-variety of ideological views PMDB is a centrist neoliberal party and the successor to the 1966 to 1979 MDB party under military-dominated governments. Since the end of the dictatorship in 1985, it consistently maintained the largest representation in at least one of the two houses of Congress.

The PMDB includes politicians ranging from conservative to left of center. Most state governors and almost all PMDB cabinet members belong to the conservative wing of the party. PMDB popular support is strongest in urban areas. With a large representation in politics, the party is among the most corrupt. Of the 65 federal deputies that the party had in 2010, 63 voted in favor of increasing their own salary.

The Brazilian Democratic Movement (Movimento Democrático Brasileiro--MDB), the political opposition to the military regime, began mobilizing national support in the late 1970s. Like the PTB (Brazilian Labor Party) in the early 1960s, the MDB was on the verge of becoming a mass political party when Congress dissolved it in 1979. The party president, Deputy Ulysses Guimarães, convinced the party to "add a P to the MDB" to preserve the hard-fought opposition image.

The Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro--PMDB) won nine governorships in 1982 and elected Tancredo Neves in the electoral college of January 1985 in alliance with the PFL. The centrist PMDB advanced to become the "catch-all, rainbow" party, electing a majority to the ANC (National Constituent Assembly), and all but one governor in 1986. Overloaded with joiners (many of whom migrated from the Arena/PDS), the PMDB acquired a more conservative profile, provided a base for the Big Center in the ANC, and projected an image of close collaboration with the Sarney government. These tendencies provoked the exodus of the more progressive members, such as the PSDB, in 1988. The party was less successful in the congressional and gubernatorial elections in 1988 and 1990, but made a slight comeback in the 1992 municipal elections.

In 1994 the PMDB's presidential candidate, former governor Orestes Quêrcia, placed fourth. Nevertheless, the PMDB managed to elect nine governors and remained the largest party in Congress, electing fourteen senators and 107 federal deputies. The PMDB had two important ministries (transport and justice), plus the Secretariat of Regional Development (now subordinate to the Ministry of Planning) in the Cardoso government. With the defeat of Quêrcia and the loss of São Paulo State, the party has no coherent national leadership, and the support of its sizable congressional delegation is uncertain. In 1997 the PMDB became the second largest party in Congress, losing its first-rank position to the PFL.

PMDB had been the junior partner in government with the leftist Workers Party since 2006, first under former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and then President Dilma Rousseff. By 2006 the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) remained sharply divided, more a "federation of parties" than a single entity. One wing, led by party president Michel Temer, Federal Deputy from Sao Paulo, was closer to the PSDB, but a minority faction was closer to President Lula's government.

PRB - Brazilian Republic Party / Partido da República was Vice President José Alencar's party. In 2008 the PRB participated in its first election. With little more than a year of existence, it elected 01 (a) Congressman and 03 (three) members. But the greatest achievement was the election of José Alencar as Vice President of the Republic, on the ticket of the then President Lula. In politics, in 1994, he ran for governor of the state of Minas and, in 1998, he was elected senator for the PMDB party, with nearly 3 million votes. In 2002, Alencar was elected vice president alongside president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The Minas Gerais-based businessman's contribution was crucial for Lula to gain the trust of businessmen during his campaign. He was re-elected in 2006. Former Brazilian vice president and businessman José Alencar died 29 March 2011.

The proclamation of the Old Republic [República Velha] was the solution found in 1889 to put an end to the socio-political crisis that was faced during the Second Empire. On that occasion, several political parties were formed, almost all statewide Republicans. The main subtitles were the Republican Party of São Paulo (PRP) and the Republican Party of Mineiro (PRM), which alternated in power throughout the Republic. However, all associations were extinguished by Getúlio Vargas, leader of the forces that promoted the revolution of 1930. On December 16, 2003, the Municipal Renewal Party – PMR held its first National Convention. To evolve to a new political concept, with an emphasis on the principles of development of the Republic, in the National Convention took place on October 25, 2005, changed its name to Brazilian Republican Party and its acronym to PRB.

With a campaign spread throughout the national territory, in 2010 the PRB came out of the polls with a fairly encouraging result: 01 Senator of the Republic, 8 deputies, 17 state deputies and 01 Deputy District. There were around 7 million votes of Brazil and Brazilians who placed their hopes in the work of the men and women of the PRB. As the late Honorary President of the PRB, José Alencar once said: "Republicans are people who have commitment to the homeland and democracy."

PSC – Christian Social Party (Partido Social Cristão). Founded in May 1985, the Social Christian Party (PSC) has emerged as a natural consequence of the boldness of Brazilian grounded in the ideals disseminated by vice-president Pedro Aleixo, who was prevented by the military dictatorship from assuming the presidency after the death of Costa e Silva. In 1990, five years after opening policy, the Social Christian Party received the definitive record of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE). That same year, Geraldo Bouillon was elected governor of Alagoas. according to the party, "Christianity, more than a religion, is for the PSC a state of mind that does not segregate, does not exclude or discriminate. Accepts everyone, regardless of creed, color, race, ideology, sex, social, political, economic or financial." Pastor Marcos Feliciano is an entrepreneur, senior pastor of Assembly of God Church of Orlândia (SP) and creator of the Ministry Time Revival. Protests spread across Brazil in March 2013 against the newly elected chair of Brazil's human rights committee who thinks gays are 'sick', and blacks are ‘cursed’. Protests spread across 43 cities against Marco Feliciano, the newly elected chair of Brazil’s House of Representatives Committee on Human Rights and Minorities (CDHM). Feliciano, who was elected on 7 March 2013, was under investigation for inciting hate speech and embezzlement.