Liberal Party (Brazil, 2006)

The **Liberal Party** (Portuguese: *Partido Liberal*, **PL**) is a Brazilian conservative political party. From its foundation until 2019, it was called the **Party of the Republic** (Portuguese: *Partido da República*, **PR**).

The Liberal Party belongs to Centrão, an informal group of political parties that monetized their support in exchange for important positions for their members or subsidies for the electoral strongholds of their elected officials, engaging in a form of passive corruption.

It is the political party of current Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and supports his candidacy for president in 2022.

## History

Party of the Republic was founded on 26 October 2006, by the merger of the old Liberal Party and the Party of the Reconstruction of the National Order (*Partido da Reedificação da Ordem Nacional*, PRONA).

Historically the party was a pragmatic party of business intrests, supporting the candidacies of Lula and Dilma for the sake of moderating their presidencies. It generally supported a form of Lulism that had less economic regulation.

At the 2010 elections, PL focused on the parliamentary elections; it won 41 of the 513 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 4 of the 81 Senate seats.

Sergio Victor Tamer, the PR's founder, was the party's president from 2006-2014. 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 righward 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).

On 30 November 2021, President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro and his son Senator Flávio Bolsonaro 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 Progressistas, which he had been a member of from 1995–2003 and 2005–2016.

In the 2022 general election, the party has formed a presidential ticket and many gubernatorial tickets with a hard right coalition of the Republicanos and the Progressitas.

## Ideology

Though previously a party of national liberalism, before its merger with PRONA, the party has increasingly been affiliated with the anti-democratic right in Brazil. This has come as a result of the party's joining around the political philosophy of Jair Bolsonaro, who was intialy affiliated with the PSL and other socially conservative parties. With the questioning of democracy, foreign policy, and the anti-democratic statements of Bolsanaro, seems to have reimbraced some of the tendencies of the head of PRONA Eneas Carneiro, a noted supporter of LaRoucheism, the previous military dictatorship, and a right wing opposition to neoliberalism.

Generally the party is right-wing populist, economically liberal, and pro-Evangelical, similar to Bolsonarismo, the ideology of the president. The party is agrarian, pro-military, and pro-life. The party promotes a generally more economically open form of Brazilian nationalism than Carneiro. The party has frequently supported Bolsonaro's attacks on the media and the election system in Brazil.

## Notable Members

* Jair Bolsonaro, former army captain, Federal Deputy for Rio de Janeiro from to 1991 to 2018, and President of Brazil since 2019
* Flavio Bolsonaro, entrepreneur, Federal Deputy for Rio de Janeiro from 2003 to 2019, and Senator for Rio de Janeiro since 2019
* Tiririca, comedian, singer-songwriter, and Federal Deputy for São Paulo since 2011
* Romário, football player and Senator for Rio de Janeiro
* Marco Feliciano, pastor and Federal Deputy for São Paulo since 2011
* Flávia Arruda, entrepreneur, Secretary of Government from 2021 to 2022, and Federal Deputy for the Federal District since 2019
* Valdemar Costa Neto, former Federal Deputy for São Paulo from 1991 to 2005 and from 2007 to 2013 and current Party President
* Onyx Lorenzoni, veterinarian, cabinet minister, and politician from Rio Grande do Sul