Brazilian Labour Party (1981)
The Brazilian Labour Party (Portuguese: Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro, PTB) was a political party in Brazil registered in 1981 by Ivete Vargas, niece of President Getúlio Vargas. It claimed the legacy of the historical PTB, although many historians reject this because the early version of PTB was a center-left party with wide support in the working class. It was the seventh largest political party in Brazil with more than a million affiliated as of 2022.
Brazilian Labour Party Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro | |
|---|---|
| President | Marcus Vinícius Neskau |
| Honorary President | Roberto Jefferson |
| Founder | Ivete Vargas |
| Founded | 21 November 1979 |
| Registered | 3 November 1981 |
| Dissolved | 9 November 2023 |
| Merger of | Party of the Nation's Retirees Social Democratic Party |
| Preceded by | Brazilian Labour Party |
| Merged into | Democratic Renewal Party |
| Headquarters | SAS, Qd. 1, Bloco M, Ed. Libertas, Loja 101 Brasília, Brazil |
| Think tank | Fundação Ivete Vargas |
| Youth wing | Juventude Trabalhista Cristã Conservadora Historical: Juventude do PTB |
| Membership (November 2021) | 1,075,750 |
| Ideology | Social conservatism Brazilian nationalism Right-wing populism National conservatism Christian right Catholic social teaching Factions: Anarcho-capitalism Brazilian Integralism Economic liberalism Historical: Getulism Labourism Left-wing nationalism |
| Political position | Right-wing to far-right Historical: Centre-left |
| Colours | White Yellow Green Blue |
| Slogan | "God, Family, Homeland and Freedom" |
| TSE Identification Number | 14 |
| Website | |
| ptb | |
| This article is part of a series on |
| Conservatism in Brazil |
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Despite the name suggesting a left-leaning unionist labour party, the PTB was mainly a big tent centrist party for most of its history, considered part of the Centrão, a bloc of parties without consistent ideological orientation which supports different sides of the political spectrum in order to gain political privileges. As such, they supported the presidency of Fernando Collor de Mello, Itamar Franco, and Fernando Henrique Cardoso — all considered center-right — as well as Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the first term of Dilma Rousseff — who were leftist presidents. Since the conservative wave in the 2010s, the party had shown strong support for the government of Jair Bolsonaro, presenting policies from a more right-wing angle, in addition to affiliating federal deputy Daniel Silveira, known for making references to AI-5.
After the 2022 Brazilian general elections, PTB failed to break through the electoral threshold, thus cutting access to party subsidies and free political advertisement. Thus, in November 2023, it merged with the party Patriota to form the Democratic Renewal Party.