Social Liberal Party (Brazil)

This article is about a conservative and nationalist party. For Brazilian liberal parties, see Liberalism in Brazil.

Social Liberal Party Partido Social Liberal
Abbreviation	PSL
President	Luciano Bivar
Founded	30 October 1994;29 years ago (1994-10-30)
Dissolved	8 February 2022;21 months ago (2022-02-08)
Merged into	Brazil Union
Headquarters	SHN, Quadra 02, Bloco F, Ed. Executive Office Tower, Sala 1.122 – Brasília, DF
Membership (October 2021)	74,824 [1]
Ideology	2018–2022: Brazilian nationalism [2] Conservatism [3] [4] Economic liberalism [5] Federalism [2] National conservatism [6] Right-wing populism [7] Anti-communism [2] 1994–2018: Social liberalism [8] Classical liberalism [8] Cultural liberalism [8]
Political position	2018–2022: Right-wing to far-right [9] 1994–2018: Centre
Colours	Blue   Yellow   Green
TSE Identification Number	17
Website
psl.org.br
Politics of Brazil Political parties Elections

The Social Liberal Party (Portuguese : Partido Social Liberal, PSL) was a far-right ^[9] political party in Brazil, that merged with the Democrats and founded the Brazil Union. Founded in 1994 as a social-liberal political party, the PSL was registered on the Superior Electoral Court in 1998.

In January 2018, former Social Christian Party politician Jair Bolsonaro joined the party and later converted it into an economically liberal, Brazilian nationalist, radically anti-communist and social conservative party. The original name remained after the ideological shift, and after Livres (the party's original main wing) left the party and formed their own political movement to continue the party's original goals. Bolsonaro became the party's nominee for the 2018 Brazilian general election and won in both rounds. Bolsonaro left the party in 2019 after disagreements with its president, Luciano Bivar, and then founded Alliance for Brazil. ^[10]

On October 6, 2021, the party voted to merge with the Democrats to establish the Brazil Union party. ^[11]

History

PSL's logo from 1994 to 2004

PSL was originally founded on 30 October 1994 by businessman Luciano Bivar as a social liberal party. ^[12] It was registered on the Superior Electoral Court on 2 June 1998. ^[13]

In the 2002 legislative elections, PSL won 1 out of 513 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and no seats in the Federal Senate. In the 2006 legislative elections, the party won no seats in the Chamber of Deputies or the Federal Senate. In the 2010 legislative elections, PSL won 1 seat in the Chamber of Deputies and no seats in the Federal Senate, maintaining the same results in the 2014 legislative elections.

Luciano Bivar during the 2006 Brazilian general election

In 2015, 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. ^{[14] [15]} PSL also supported the impeachment of former president Dilma Rousseff. ^[16]

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). ^[17] 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. ^[18] 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. ^[19] It also became the largest single party in the legislative assemblies of both Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. ^{[20] [21]} On 28 October 2018, Bolsonaro was elected president with 55.13% of the votes, defeating Workers' Party's Fernando Haddad. ^[22] He took office on 1 January 2019. ^[23]

On 29 October 2018, Bivar was re-appointed as party's president. ^[24] On 12 November 2019, Bolsonaro announced his departure from the party following disagreements with the national executive. ^[25]

On October 6, 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. ^[11] The merger was approved by the Superior Electoral Court and officially became registered on 8 February 2022. ^[26] As such, both PSL and DEM were disbanded.

Organization

PSL while housing the Livres movement

Ideology and policies

Since Bolsonaro's entrance in the party, PSL has changed much of its ideologies. It went from a social-liberal party with an economic liberal group Livres ^[27] to a far-right and right-wing populist party, abandoning its former cultural liberalism and keeping its economic liberal policies, supporting privatisation and decentralisation, while at the same time adopting cultural conservatism as well as social-conservative policies regarding abortion, legalization of marijuana, and teaching of gender identity in schools. ^[2]

Electoral history

Presidential elections

Election	Party candidate	Running mate	Colligation	Votes	%	Votes	%	Result	Sources
				First round		Second round
2006	Luciano Bivar (PSL)	Américo de Souza (PSL)	None	62.064	0.06% (#7)	-	-	LostN	[28] [29] [30]
2014	Marina Silva (PSB)	Beto Albuquerque (PSB)	PSB; PHS; PRP; PPS; PPL; PSL	22,176,619	21.32% (#3)	-	-	LostN	[31] [32] [33] [34]
2018	Jair Bolsonaro (PSL)	Hamilton Mourão (PRTB)	PSL; PRTB	49,276,990	46.0% (No. 1)	57,797,801	55.13% (No. 1)	ElectedY	[35] [36] [37] [38] [39]

Legislative elections

Election	Chamber of Deputies				Federal Senate				Government
	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
2002	408,512	0.47%	1 / 513	1	295,807	0.19%	0 / 81	0	Coalition
2006	190,793	0.20%	0 / 513	1	46,542	0.06%	0 / 81	0	Extra-parliamentary
2010	499,963	0.52%	1 / 513	1	446,517	0.26%	0 / 81	0	Opposition
2014	808,710	0.83%	1 / 513	0	did not participate		0 / 81	0	Opposition
2018	11,457,878	11.65%	52 / 513	51	19,413,869	11.33%	4 / 81	4	Coalition

See also

• Patriota

References

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2. "Em que acreditamos" (in Portuguese). Social Liberal Party. Archived from the original on 1 November 2018. Retrieved 6 November 2018.
3. "Brazil elections: Bolsonaro and Haddad choices before voters". BBC . 28 October 2018.
4. Scuch, Matheus (5 January 2018). "Bolsonaro decide concorrer à Presidência pelo PSL" (in Portuguese). GaúchaZH. Retrieved 6 November 2018.
5. "Com chegada de bolsonaro livres anuncia saida do psl".
6. "Jair Bolsonaro seeks top judge to become Brazil justice minister". BBC News. 30 October 2018. Retrieved 6 November 2018.
7. Pearson, Samantha; Magalhaes, Luciana (28 October 2018). "Far-right populist Jair Bolsonaro wins divisive Brazil presidential election". MarketWatch. Retrieved 6 November 2018.
8. "Quem Somos" (in Portuguese). Livres. Retrieved 20 June 2020.
9. • Blunck, Julia (17 October 2018). "Why Brazil's far-right challenger Jair Bolsonaro has already won". New Statesman. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
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11. null. "Convenção coletiva formaliza fusão PSL-DEM e criação do União Brasil". Gazeta do Povo (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 7 October 2021.
12. "PSL - Partido Social Liberal 17" (in Portuguese). Social Liberal Party. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
13. "Partido Social Liberal - Nossa História". psl.org.br (in Brazilian Portuguese). Archived from the original on 24 November 2018. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
14. "Partido Social Liberal". Pslnacional.org.br (in Portuguese). Social Liberal Party. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
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16. "Impeachment de Dilma: saiba como votou cada um dos partidos na Câmara" (in Portuguese). Agência Brasil. 18 April 2016. Retrieved 29 October 2018.
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19. Gamarski, Rachel; Adghirni, Samy (8 October 2018). "Bolsonaro Election Effect Turns Brazil's Congress on Its Head". Bloomberg. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
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27. Fucs, José (5 January 2018). "Com chegada de Bolsonaro, Livres anuncia saída do PSL". O Estado de São Paulo (in Portuguese). Retrieved 6 November 2018.
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Preceded by 16 - USWP (PSTU)	Numbers of Brazilian Official Political Parties 17 - SLP (PSL)(defunct)	Succeeded by 18 - NETWORK (REDE)