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 most numbers of senators, mayors and city councillors, always having formed a large part of the National Congress since 1988, and also has the largest number of affiliates, with 2,043,709 members as of July 2023.
Brazilian Democratic Movement Movimento Democrático Brasileiro | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | MDB |
| President | Baleia Rossi |
| Secretary-General | Jorge Caruso |
| Founded | 4 December 1965 (original MDB) 15 January 1980 (renamed as PMDB) 19 December 2017 (altered its name back to MDB) |
| Registered | 30 June 1981 (registered as PMDB) |
| Dissolved | 20 December 1979 (original MDB) |
| Merger of | Brazilian Labour Party Social Democratic Party (majority) |
| Headquarters | Câmara dos Deputados - Presidência do MDB, Ed. Principal sala T4 - Esplanada dos Ministérios Brasília |
| Think tank | Fundação Ulysses Guimarães |
| Youth wing | Juventude do MDB |
| Women's wing | MDB Mulher |
| Black wing | MDB Afro |
| LGBT wing | MDB Diversidade |
| Membership (2023) | 2,043,709 |
| Ideology | Big tent Economic liberalism |
| Political position | Centre to centre-right Historical: Centre to centre-left |
| Regional affiliation | COPPPAL |
| Colours | Main: Green Secondary: Yellow, red and black |
| Slogan | "Balance Point" |
| TSE Identification Number | 15 |
| Chamber of Deputies | 42 / 513 |
| Federal Senate | 10 / 81 |
| Governorships | 3 / 27 |
| State Assemblies | 147 / 1,024 |
| Mayors | 1,022 / 5,570 |
| City Councillors | 7,825 / 56,810 |
| Website | |
| www | |
Originally, the MDB was founded on 1965 as part of an enforced two party system by the Brazilian military dictatorship, providing an official, if controlled, opposition. With political opening, on 1980 the former members of the MDB created the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (Portuguese: Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro, PMDB), name which 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. As such, MDB has been criticized and accused of being a cronyistic "physiological party", aiming at ensuring proximity to the executive branch in order to guarantee advantages and allow them to distribute privileges through clientelistic networks. This has been shown by the support to multiple governing parties since the beginning of the Sixth Brazilian Republic. As such, the MDB has been considered one of the core members of the Centrão.