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 (''''; 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. At the legislative
elections on 6 October 2002, the party won 74 out of 513 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 19 out of 81 seats in the Senate, making it one of the biggest parties in Brazil. The party decided not to launch a candidate for the
2006 presidential election in order to be free to join any coalition in the states. Under Brazilian electoral law then, parties launching presidential candidates could not form alliances at the state level that differed at the national level (this norm was subsequently repealed). At the congressional elections in October 2006, PMDB won 89 of 513 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, becoming its biggest party; and in the Senate it had 15 of the 81 seats after its one-third renovation, becoming the third-largest party. PMDB also won seven state gubernatorial elections in the same election. In
2010, the party made gains in the Senate, winning 16 of the elected seats for a total of 20. It was somewhat weakened in other elections, winning 79 seats in the Chamber of Deputies (becoming the second largest party) and winning five state governorships. Notable PMDB members included:
Wanderlei Silva,
Tancredo Neves,
Ulysses Guimarães,
Itamar Franco,
Orestes Quércia,
Michel Temer,
Anthony Garotinho,
José Sarney,
Renan Calheiros, Pedro Simon,
Roberto Requião,
Germano Rigotto,
Paulo Skaf, Ramez Tebet, Marcelo Fortuna, Iris Rezende and Maguito Vilela. On 29 March 2016, PMDB announced that it was leaving the coalition with the
Workers' Party following accusations against President
Dilma Rousseff and former president
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of corruption. The PMDB supported the
impeachment process against Dilma Rousseff. After the impeachment process began, vice president Michel Temer formed a new center-right liberal coalition government with
PSDB and other parties. He was confirmed as president as Dilma was permanently removed from office by the Senate on August, 31st 2016, thus becoming the second Brazilian president to hail from PMDB. On 19 December 2017, the party reverted to its former name, Brazilian Democratic Movement (, MDB). The move was seen as an attempt to renew party identity. The initials PMDB had become associated with corruption and cronyism, while the original acronym was associated with the struggle for
democracy, according to party leader,
Romero Jucá. The party announced a program based on
economic liberalism,
fiscal conservatism and greater openness to sectors of civil society such as evangelicals and environmentalists. The party also made it clear that it will prioritize parliamentarians who agree with the new positions of the party, which has been interpreted by many as a warning that rebel parliamentarians, especially the senator from Paraná, Roberto Requião, strongly associated with the Brazilian nationalist left (and who eventually left the party in the summer of 2021 and eventually joined the
Workers' Party), and even
Renan Calheiros, the President of the
Federal Senate, considered one of the most powerful personalities of Brazilian politics, but who shows little alignment with Temer's government and propositions of economic liberalism, can be excluded from the party. A few days earlier, Senator
Kátia Abreu of
Tocantins was expelled from the party for her support of the opposition, especially for her firm stance against the pension reform, as an alignment to the PT of whom she had been allied in the mandate of Dilma Rousseff. The PMDB is the Brazilian political party that received the most
bribes from
Odebrecht. The company's "institutional relations" manager, Melo Filho, says he can find among the PMDB senators "the parliamentarians most devoted to the group's interests", but also those "who asked for the highest contributions". == Ideology ==