Founded in 1994 as a social-liberal political party by Luciano Bivar, businessman and former president of football club Sport Club do Recife, the PSL was registered on the Superior Electoral Court in 1998. Throughout much of its early history, the PSL didn't have much of any representation in national politics and mostly remained as the personal party of Bivar.[12] During the 2006 Brazilian general election, Bivar was launched as a presidential candidate and received only 0.06% of the votes. In 2015, the PSL started a modernization and reformation process, harboring the economic liberal and social liberal movement Livres, to emphasize the party's affiliation with social liberalism.[12][13]
In 2015, through the initiative of Bivar's son, Sérgio Bivar, the PSL underwent a reform led by the internal social liberal wing Livres, with names such as political scientist Fábio Ostermann[pt] and journalist Leandro Narloch reinforcing the party's affiliation with social liberal policies.[19][13] PSL also supported the impeachment of former president Dilma Rousseff.[20]
In 2017, the only elected federal deputy of the party, Alfredo Kaefer, was expelled from the party after pressure from Livres for voting in favor of a legislation that would negatively affect Ridesharingapps like Uber and Cabify by classifying them as public transportation. Before the vote, Livres had taken a firm stance against the legislation, arguing that regulation would negatively restrict the market. Kaefer, who identified himself as "economically liberal but socially conservative", claimed the group was "hijacking" the party and confusing "liberty with libertinism."[21][22]
On 5 January 2018, conservative and former Social Christian politician Jair Bolsonaro became a member of the party, which prompted the Livres wing to leave the party in protest of Bolsonaro's social conservative views. After the exit of Livres, the party followed a national conservative path, changed its colors from purple to the more nationalist blue, yellow and green (the colors of Brazil's flag) and since then has discussed a name change either to Republicans (Republicanos) or Mobilize (Mobiliza).[23] On 5 March 2018, Bivar stepped down from party's presidency and Gustavo Bebianno was appointed as acting president.
Bolsonaro eventually became PSL's nominee for the 2018 presidential election, exceeding polling forecasts to receive 46% of the popular vote in the first round.[24] Bolsonaro's coattails helped elect 52 deputies and 4 senators from PSL, which made it the second largest political party in the post-2018 Chamber of Deputies.[25] It also became the largest single party in the legislative assemblies of both Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.[26][27] On 28 October 2018, Bolsonaro was elected president with 55.13% of the votes, defeating Workers' Party's Fernando Haddad.[28] He took office on 1 January 2019.[29]
On 29 October 2018, Bivar was re-appointed as party's president.[30] On 12 November 2019, Bolsonaro announced his departure from the party following disagreements with the national executive.[31] However, a lot of Bolsonaro supporters stayed on PSL and the party tried to court members of the Free Brazil Movement.[2]
On 6 October 2021, the party voted to merge with the Democrats (DEM) to establish the Brazil Union party. The new party plans to use the number 44 as its electoral number.[16] The merger was approved by the Superior Electoral Court and officially became registered on 8 February 2022.[32] As such, both PSL and DEM were disbanded.
1 2 "Rachado entre aliados e opositores de Bolsonaro, PSL filia vereador e abre caminho para MBL". www.folhape.com.br (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2 November 2025. Por outro lado, a escolha do MBL pelo PSL leva em conta a avaliação de que dificilmente o presidente voltará para o partido que o abrigou em 2018. Hoje, no entanto, a maior parte da bancada federal do PSL ainda é fiel a Bolsonaro, e o partido é disputado por ter a segunda maior fatia do fundo eleitoral.[On the other hand, MBL's choice of PSL takes into account the assessment that the president is unlikely to return to the party that sheltered him in 2018. Today, however, most of the PSL's federal representatives are still loyal to Bolsonaro, and the party is coveted because it has the second-largest share of the electoral fund.]
"Far-Right Politics and Its Historical Marriage to Fascism". Brewminate. 20 November 2024. Retrieved 14 February 2025. The far right has continued to operate throughout Brazil[104] and a number of far-right parties existed in the modern era including Patriota, the Brazilian Labour Renewal Party, the Party of the Reconstruction of the National Order, the National Renewal Alliance and the Social Liberal Party as well as death squads such as the Command for Hunting Communists.
1 2 "As direitas em choque - revista piauí". revista piauí - _pra quem tem um clique a mais (in Brazilian Portuguese). 5 October 2020. Retrieved 29 October 2025. O Livres surgiu em 2016 como uma tendência do hoje famoso PSL. Até então, o PSL era tudo o que um partido não deve ser: não tinha nenhuma ideia, mas tinha um dono, Luciano Bivar, então suplente de deputado federal. Bivar era pouco conhecido por sua carreira política, mas muito conhecido como cartola do Sport Club do Recife. Seu filho, Sergio Bivar, queria que o PSL virasse um partido de verdade e pretendia transformá-lo numa legenda liberal com o nome de Livres.[Livres emerged in 2016 as an offshoot of the now-famous PSL. Until then, the PSL was everything a party shouldn't be: it lacked direction, but it had an owner, Luciano Bivar, then an alternate federal deputy. Bivar was little known for his political career, but very well known as a director of Sport Club do Recife. His son, Sergio Bivar, wanted the PSL to become a real party and intended to transform it into a liberal party called Livres.]
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