Democratic Social Party

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Democratic Social Party (PDS) was established in 1979 as a continuation of the National Renewal Alliance, the party which supported the 1965-79 Brazilian dictatorship, at a time in which the country turned to be a democracy. In 1985, when Paulo Maluf won the party's nomination for the presidential bid, a huge group, led by José Sarney (former leader of PDS, 1983-84), Jorge Bornhausen and Marco Maciel, founded the Liberal Front Party (PFL).

The Democratic Social Party suffered bad defeats both 1986 (7.9%) and 1990 (8.9%) elections fpr the Chamber of Deputies, when at the same time PFL took 17,7% and 12.4%. In 1986, in particular, the party was seriously defeated also in state elections, so that 12 governorship out of the 12 won in 1982 were lost. In 1985 José Sarney had been elected to the post of Vice-President, but he served from the beginning as President, due to the death of President-elect Tancredo Neves.

In 1993 the party, along with the Christian Democratic Party (3.0% in 1990 elections for the lower house), established a new party called Reform Progressive Party, which was intended to be a moderate-conservative party.