Brazilian Democratic Movement

The Brazilian Democratic Movement (Portuguese: Movimento Democrático Brasileiro, MDB) is a Brazilian political party. It is considered a "big tent party" and it is one of the parties with the greatest representation throughout the national territory, with the largest number of senators, mayors and city councillors, It has consistently held a large presence in the National Congress since 1988, and also has the largest number of affiliates, with 2,043,709 members as of July 2023^[update].

Originally, the MDB was founded on 1965 as part of an enforced two party system by the Brazilian military dictatorship, being the "consented opposition" — providing an official, but controlled, opposition to the governist National Renewal Alliance (ARENA). With the political opening in the early 1980s the two parties were disbanded and former members of the MDB created the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (Portuguese: Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro, PMDB), the name by which the party was known until 2018. It was the party of former Presidents of Brazil Tancredo Neves, José Sarney, Itamar Franco and Michel Temer, as well providing support for the governments of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Luíz Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff, as well as unofficial support for the government of Jair Bolsonaro.

After the redemocratization of Brazil, MDB became a big tent party without a clear ideological program, seeking to have many members from various positions and different interest groups under its wing. It has been considered one of the core members of the Centrão, having supported multiple governing parties since the beginning of the Sixth Brazilian Republic. As such, the party has been criticized and accused of being a cronyistic "physiological party", which focus on negotiating support for the government in exchange for positions, resources and political influence.

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.

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.

Starting in 1979, 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. Many of the MDB left into multiple new opposition parties such as the Democratic Labour Party (PDT), Brazilian Labour Party (PTB), Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), 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 (Portuguese: Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro; PMDB).

The MDB had been a big tent 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 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.

In 1985, party leader Tancredo Neves won the presidential election, but died before taking office. His running mate José Sarney, 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 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.