The Party of the Republic was founded on 26 October 2006, by the merger of the old
Liberal Party — which initially started as a
classical liberal party, The merger was performed in order to surpass the
electoral threshold of 5%, Historically, the party was a pragmatic party of business interests, supporting the candidacies of
Lula and
Dilma from the
Workers' Party (PT) for the sake of moderating their presidencies. It generally supported a form of
Lulism, which had less economic regulation. As such, the Party of the Republic was considered part of the
Centrão. Sergio Victor Tamer, founder of the Party of the Republic, was the party's president from 2006 to 2014.
Alfredo Nascimento succeeded Tamer as president of the PR until April 2016, when he resigned due to party leadership not supporting the
impeachment of Dilma Rousseff. However, 26 of the PR's MPs did vote for her impeachment. After that move by its MPs, the party took a more rightward turn away from its bipartisan past and supported
Geraldo Alckmin's failed campaign in the
2018 Brazilian presidential election. On 7 May 2019, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) voted to approve a motion of the party to change its name back to
Liberal Party (PL). According to party leadership, the change was done in order to return to the party's roots as body defending
economic liberalism,
Free market and low
intervention of the state in the economy. The social positions of the party remained socially conservative, however. Other specialists point it out as part of a national tendency of parties in Brazil rebranding in order to get better perception from the electorate due a process of loss of trust caused by the Brazilian political crisis, and also riding a wave of pro-liberalism sentiment in Brazil. Following the controversy, the candidate was expelled from the party, which claimed to be unaware of the candidate's ideology. The candidacy was subsequently withdrawn. On 30 November 2021,
President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro and his son Senator
Flávio Bolsonaro — who were previously affiliated with the
Social Liberal Party (PSL) and left it, attempting to create the
Alliance for Brazil party with no avail — joined the PL in preparation for the
2022 Brazilian general election (as presidential candidates must be affiliated with a political party). He had previously considered returning to the
Progressists (PP), the
Social Christian Party (PSC),
Brazilian Labour Party (PTB), as well negotiation with number of other smaller and/or right-wing to far-right parties. Bolsonaro's affiliation to the PL has been pointed out by analysts as a consolidation of an alliance with the
Centrão. In the 2022 general election, the party had formed a presidential ticket and many gubernatorial tickets with a hard right coalition of the
Republicans and the
Progressists (PP). The election was a great success to the party, resulting in PL becoming the largest bloc in the
National Congress of Brazil with 99 seats and the
Federal Senate with 13 seats. According to some analysts, the party had been divided between two wide factions: one with traditional
Centrão politicians loyal to party president
Valdemar Costa Neto, and a Bolsonarist one, composing about two-thirds of the PL's elected bench, with Bolsonaro’s followers from the PSL. In an interview, Neto revealed he feared that in case
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is elected president, there would be a split in the party as the traditional faction might want to align themselves with a possible PT government, while the Bolsonarist branch would form an opposition. == Ideology ==