Brazilian Social Democracy Party

With the imminent collapse of the military dictatorship in the early 1980s, a group of left-wing intellectuals were mobilized to create a leftist party. Some of them attempted to work with the labour movement led by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, but the group split over ideological grounds. A group of democratic socialists and Trotskyists joined the labour movement and founded the Workers' Party (PT) while the social democrats remained in the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) and would later create the Brazilian Social Democracy Party. Founded on 25 June 1988 by members of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) linked to the European social democratic movement as an attempt to clarify their ideals, its manifesto preached "democracy as a fundamental value" and "social justice as an aim to be reached". In its foundation, the party attempted to unite political groups as diverse as social democrats, social liberals, Christian democrats and democratic socialists. The period when the PSDB was created was a very significant moment in the history of Brazilian politics.

On 21 April 1985, President-elect Tancredo Neves died, having been the last President not elected directly by the people since the beginning of the military dictatorship. With the formation of new parties, including the PSDB, a National Constitutional Assembly was created and drafted the current democratic constitution in 1988. A high proportion of the first members of the PSDB came from the so-called "historic PMDB", which was and still is a very large party with many internal conflicts. The founders of the PSDB were dissatisfied with the results of the National Constitutional Assembly and decided to create a party to reflect the need for a national political renewal. As their manifesto states, the new party was created "away from the official benefits, but close to the pulsing of the streets" (taken from a speech by party leader Franco Montoro). Some of the founding members were José Serra, Mário Covas, Ciro Gomes, André Franco Montoro, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Aécio Neves and Geraldo Alckmin.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}

In a country where two constitutional referendums, held in 1963 and in 1993, have shown a very strong preference for a presidential system of government as in most countries of the Americas, the PSDB stands almost alone in the preference given in its manifesto to a parliamentarian system of government. However, after the electors rejected parliamentarism in 1993 and even though the PSDB leader Cardoso was elected president the next year, the party did nothing in subsequent years to further the cause of a parliamentarian system.{{citation needed|reason=This paragraph reads as political opinion; lacks a necessary level of wikipedian objectivity, and perhaps veracity, please consider rewriting.|date=April 2016}}File:Eleições PT e PSDB.gif between 1994 and 2014|thumb|329x329px|left]]The PSDB is one of the largest and most significant political parties in Brazil. Its official program says its policies are social democratic and often associated with the Third Way movement, although the party is also seen as influenced by neoliberalism. The party's program states that it "reject[s] populism and authoritarianism, as well as both fundamentalist neoliberalism and obsolete national-statism".{{cite web|last1=Goldman|first1=Alberto|title=Declaração Programática do Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira (Documento preliminar para discussão interna)|url=http://americo.usal.es/oir/opal/Documentos/Brasil/Partidos%20Pol%C3%ADticos/PSDB/Declarac_progra2001.pdf|website=Instituto de Iberoamérica|access-date=15 November 2014|date=18 May 2001}}

Despite its name, the PSDB is not a member of the Socialist International[http://www.socialistinternational.org/maps/english/southa.htm "404 - File or directory not found"] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20061014101051/http://www.socialistinternational.org/maps/english/southa.htm |date=2006-10-14 }}. which draws together social democratic parties worldwide (the Brazilian member of the Socialist International is the Democratic Labour Party, PDT). The party has never had the links to trade union movements that usually characterize social democratic parties; it used to sponsor a central union, the Social-Democracia Sindical (SDS), which has now merged with the Central Autônoma dos Trabalhadores (CAT) and the much more important Central Geral dos Trabalhadores (CGT) into the União Geral dos Trabalhadores (UGT),[http://www.secefergs.org.br/Ugt/ "União Geral dos Trabalhadores"]. but its impact among the unions has always been quite unimpressive compared to even much smaller parties as the PDT or the Communist Party of Brazil, or to the tucanos{{'}}s own influence in society at large.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}} After supporting the candidacy of Geraldo Alckmin in the 2018 presidential election (which was eliminated in the first round with 4.8 per cent of the vote), in the second round, some of the party's leaders supported the far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro, to whom most of the party's traditional electorate had already turned,{{Cite web|url=https://www.iris-france.org/119949-bresil-au-secours-lextreme-droite-revient/|title = Brésil : Au secours l'extrême-droite revient ?| date=4 October 2018 }} while former São Paulo Governor Alberto Goldman endorsed Workers’ Party candidate Fernando Haddad instead.{{Cite web|title=Ex-governador Alberto Goldman, do PSDB, declara apoio a Haddad|url=https://noticias.uol.com.br/politica/eleicoes/2018/noticias/2018/10/24/goldman-declara-apoio-haddad.htm|access-date=2022-01-16|website=UOL Eleições 2018|date=24 October 2018 |language=pt-BR}}

File:Logomarca do Partido Social da Democracia Brasileira.pngAfter suffering defeats in the 2016 and 2018 elections, PSDB went through a rebranding. The font of their logo was changed, the toucan was removed in favor of a flag of Brazil and the party received the new motto Pelo Brasil ("For Brazil").{{Cite web |last=Soares |first=Olavo |title=PSDB tem nova logo e "mata" tucano clássico em emblema |url=https://www.gazetadopovo.com.br/republica/breves/psdb-mata-tucano-classico-e-anuncia-nova-logo/ |access-date=2022-10-17 |website=Gazeta do Povo |language=pt-BR}} However, after heavy losses in the 2022 Brazilian general election, especially with the loss of their longtime hegemony in São Paulo, the party's principles were revised{{Cite web|url=https://www.psdb.org.br/acompanhe/noticias/psdb-encerra-dialogos-tucanos-com-a-apresentacao-das-novas-diretrizes-e-logomarca|title=PSDB encerra Diálogos Tucanos com a apresentação das novas diretrizes e logomarca|date=24 August 2023}} and the toucan logo was reinstated under Eduardo Leite's leadership, alongside a new motto, Um só Brasil ("Only one Brazil").{{Cite web|url=https://www.psdb.org.br/acompanhe/noticias/psdb-moderniza-sua-marca|title=PSDB moderniza sua marca|date=24 August 2023}}

Based on data released by the Superior Electoral Court, the Movement to Combat Electoral Corruption released a ranking on 4 October 2007 regarding the parties that included the largest number of elected officials exposed for corruption since 2000. The PSDB appeared in third place on the list with 58 cases, behind only the Democrats and the PMDB.{{cite web|title=Desde 2000, 623 políticos foram cassados. DEM lidera ranking|work=O Globo|url=http://oglobo.globo.com/pais/mat/2007/10/04/298003467.asp|access-date=19 October 2014}}

The PSDB was considered Brazil's "dirtiest" party by the country's electoral authority. Yet, according to a 2016 academic study, the party has clearly benefited from the complacency of the Brazilian media, which has barely mentioned these cases.{{Cite web|url=https://mondediplo.com/2019/09/09corruption|title = The politics of corruption|date = September 2019}}

According to an analysis released on 8 September 2012, of 317 Brazilian politicians who were barred from running in elections by the Clean Record Act, the PSDB is the party that has the largest number of barred candidates with 56 party members.{{cite web|author=Talita Abrantes|title=PSDB tem o maior número de barrados pelo Ficha Limpa|work=Exame|date=8 September 2012 |url=http://exame.abril.com.br/brasil/noticias/psdb-tem-o-maior-numero-de-barrados-pelo-ficha-limpa|access-date=21 October 2014}}

The 2011 book A Privataria Tucana, written by journalist Amaury Ribeiro Jr., a former special reporter of weekly magazine ISTO É and daily newspaper O Globo, highlighted documents that show alleged irregularities in privatizations that occurred during the administration of the former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso. It contains about 140 pages of photocopied documents in support of the claim that President Cardoso's Minister of Planning and later Minister of Health José Serra received kickbacks from businessmen who participated in the Brazilian privatization process, held companies in tax shelters, and moved millions of dollars between 1993 and 2003.{{cite web|url=http://knightcenter.utexas.edu/blog/brazilian-political-party-threatens-sue-journalist-over-book|title=Brazilian political party threatens to sue journalist over book|author=Natalia Mazotte|publisher=Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas|date=2 January 2012|access-date=24 March 2013|archive-date=2 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120202203253/http://knightcenter.utexas.edu/blog/brazilian-political-party-threatens-sue-journalist-over-book|url-status=dead}}

{{Liberalism in Brazil|expanded=Parties}}

Although the PSDB declares itself as a centrist party, some people on the left reject this definition, especially after Fernando Henrique Cardoso embraced Third Way politics as president. The party has been seen as neoliberal by critics from its beginnings.{{cite book|title=A Construção da ideologia neoliberal do PSDB|url=http://www.encontro2010.rj.anpuh.org/resources/anais/8/1276606395_ARQUIVO_AconstrucaodaideologianeoliberalnoPSDB_1988-1994_.pdf|isbn=978-85-60979-08-0|access-date=19 October 2014}} Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira, one of the founders of the PSDB, left the party in 2011 for ideological reasons, claiming "that the party had taken a hard turn to the right".{{cite news|first=Luiz Carlos|last=Bresser Pereira|title=Adeus à política partidária|url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/fsp/opiniao/fz1805201107.htm}}

Since abandoning its more leftist positions, the party has been described as centrist,PSDB has often been described as centrist:

• {{cite web|url= https://veja.abril.com.br/politica/doria-psdb-deixa-de-ser-partido-de-centro-esquerda-para-ser-de-centro/|title=Doria: 'PSDB deixa de ser partido de centro-esquerda para ser de centro'|publisher=Veja}}
• {{cite news|work=Reuters|date=3 October 2016|title=Millionaire Doria of centrist PSDB party wins mayor's race in Sao Paulo|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-politics-saopaulo/millionaire-doria-of-centrist-psdb-party-wins-mayors-race-in-sao-paulo-idUSKCN1220YV}}|{{cite book|first=Kristin|last=Wylie|title=Party Institutionalization and Women's Representation in Democratic Brazil|page=166|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2018}}
• {{cite book|first=Kristin|last=Wylie|title=Party Institutionalization and Women's Representation in Democratic Brazil|page=166|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2018}}, centre-right{{Cite book |last=Oliveira |first=Osmany Porto de |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k5blDQAAQBAJ&dq=%22psdb%22%22centre+right%22&pg=PA66 |title=International Policy Diffusion and Participatory Budgeting: Ambassadors of Participation, International Institutions and Transnational Networks |date=2017-01-10 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-319-43337-0 |language=en |quote=The expansion of PB in Brazil begins from the experience of Porto Alegre—even though there were similar practices seen in other citics—and increases progressively in the following ycars with PB being implemented not only by the PT administration and other left-wing parties but by other parties such as Partido da Frente Liberal (Liberal Front Party, PFL, a conservative party), Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro (Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement, PMDB, a centre party) and the Partido da Social Democracia Brastleira (Party of the Brazilian Social Democracy, PSDB, a centre-right party).}}{{Cite book |last1=Dominguez |first1=Francisco |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AwI1EAAAQBAJ&dq=%22psdb%22%22centre+right%22&pg=PA170 |title=Right-Wing Politics in the New Latin America: Reaction and Revolt |last2=Lievesley |first2=Doctor Geraldine |last3=Ludlam |first3=Steve |date=2011-11-10 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-84813-813-1 |language=en |quote=The pre-eminent conservative party, the PFL, and the pre-eminent centre-right party, the PSDB, worked together during the late 1980s and the 1990s.}}{{Cite book |last=Mascitelli |first=Bruno |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Sp9fDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22psdb%22%22centre+right%22&pg=PA65 |title=Brazilians Abroad: Emigrant Voting and Political Engagement |date=2018-06-11 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |isbn=978-1-5275-1198-9 |language=en |quote=In the 2014 elections the opposition centre-right party PSDB won the expatriate vote across all continents (TSE 2014).}}{{Cite news |date=2014-10-03 |title=Brazil's presidential election: Players and policies |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-29370759 |access-date=2025-02-04 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB |quote=She will be joined in the run-off by Aecio Neves of the centre-right Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), who got 34% of the vote.}}{{Cite book |last=Maldonado |first=Janaina |url=https://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/handle/document/97095 |title=Mid-Term Elections: Brazil's Far Right Battles for Bolsonaro's Legacy |date=2024 |publisher=German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) - Leibniz-Institut für Globale und Regionale Studien, Institut für Lateinamerika-Studien |series=GIGA Focus Lateinamerika |volume=5 |location=Hamburg |doi=10.57671/gfla-24052 |language=en |quote=The late mayor belonged to Brazil’s historic centre-right Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), of which former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso was also a member}} and right-wing.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a2uxEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22right-wing+psdb%22&pg=PA82 |title=Media Narratives: Productions and Representations of Contemporary Mythologies |date=2023-02-27 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-51838-4 |language=en |quote=4 One could expect that the framing of these events on TV Brasil (Repórter Brasil) and Tv Cultura (Jornal da Cultura), both public television networks, would be similar. But an important difference between them should be noted. Whereas federal-level institutions manage TV Brasil (thus, with no relation to the police of the State of Sáo Paulo), Tv Cultura is managed at the Sáo Paulo state level. Therefore, at TV Cultura, the image of the Sáo Paulo's police force is an issue. It is also important to note that the State of Sáo Paulo has historically been governed by the right wing PSDB party, as was the case in 2014, whereas the Partido dos Trabalhadores (the left wing Workers' Party) had been in power at the federal level since 2002. Given that 2014 was a presidential election year, this political shift between the two Tv networks should be considered.}}{{Cite book |last=Prins |first=Nomi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cj80DwAAQBAJ&dq=%22right-wing+psdb%22&pg=PA1753 |title=Collusion: How Central Bankers Rigged the World |date=2018-05-01 |publisher=PublicAffairs |isbn=978-1-56858-563-5 |language=en |quote=She narrowly defeated Aécio Neves (of the right-wing PSDB) with 51.64 percent to 48.36 percent of the vote.}}{{Cite web |title=Brazil After Lawfare: The Return of 'President' Lula and the Fall of a 'Hero' Judge |url=https://thewire.in/world/brazil-lula-de-silva-sergio-moro |access-date=2025-02-04 |website=The Wire |language=en |quote=As Rousseff began her second term amid the anticipation that Lula would be back as the PT candidate in 2018, the right-wing PSDB became desperate. It was staring at irrelevance}}{{Cite news |date=2022-11-29 |title=Lula finds right-hand man in technocrat Geraldo Alckmin |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/en/m-le-mag/article/2022/11/29/brazil-lula-finds-a-right-hand-man-in-technocrat-geraldo-alckmin_6005999_117.html |access-date=2025-02-04 |work=Le Monde |language=en |quote=A leading figure in the right-wing PSDB party, the vice president provides a liberal endorsement of a new Brazilian president keen to broaden his electoral base.}}{{Cite journal |last=Aaron Richmond |first=Matthew |date=2020 |title=Narratives of Crisis in the Periphery of São Paulo: Place and Political Articulation during Brazil's Rightward Turn |url=https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=7828296 |journal=Journal of Latin American Studies |volume=52 |issue=2 |pages=241–267 |doi=10.1017/S0022216X20000012 |issn=0022-216X |quote=Table 4 shows that in presidential elections Sapopemba’s voters gradually shifted away from the PT duringthe Party’s 13 years in power, while support for the mainstream right-wing PSDB steadily grew between 2002 and 2014.|hdl=11449/195491 |hdl-access=free }}

In an article titled "The left-right confusion in the post-Berlin Wall world", political analyst Angelo Segrillo says that "most analysts defined PSDB as center-left as of its foundation, after all, it was the Brazilian Social Democratic Party". As he notes, "this story changed after 1994, with the election of PSDB to the presidency. [...] A rhetoric of overcoming classical ideological division [...] was one of the justifications of the grand parliamentary alliance with center and right-wing parties. [...] As such, after the 1994 presidential election, most analysts started defining PSDB as a center party along with PMDB".{{cite journal|last=Segrillo|first=Angelo|year=2004|title=A confusão esquerda-direita no mundo pós-Muro de Berlim|trans-title=The left-right confusion in the post-Berlin Wall world|journal=Dados|volume=47|pages=615–632|issn=0011-5258|doi=10.1590/S0011-52582004000300006|language=pt|quote=A maioria dos analistas classificava o PSDB na centro-esquerda quando de sua criação. [...] A estória torna-se outra após 1994, com a chegada do PSDB à presidência. Uma retórica de superação das divisões ideológicas clássicas [...] foi um dos fundamentos justificativos da grande aliança parlamentar com partidos de centro e direita [...]. Tanto que, após a eleição presidencial de 1994, a maioria dos analistas passou a classificar o PSDB como partido de centro junto com o PMDB|doi-access=free}}. In its 2009 report about Freedom in the World, Freedom House defined the opposition coalition (formed by PSDB, PPS and Democrats) as a "center-right coalition".{{cite journal|author=Freedom House|date=16 July 2009|title=Freedom in the World 2009 – Brazil|journal=UNHCR|url=http://unhcr.org/refworld/publisher,FREEHOU,,BRA,4a6452cb23,0.html|quote=In early 1994, Fernando Henrique Cardoso [...] forged a three-party, centrist coalition around his Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB)|access-date=2010-01-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724154058/http://unhcr.org/refworld/publisher,FREEHOU,,BRA,4a6452cb23,0.html|archive-date=2011-07-24|url-status=dead|author-link=Freedom House}}. However, in the 2010 report by the same organization, PSDB was defined as a "center-left" party.{{cite web|url=http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=363&year=2010&country=7788|publisher=Freedom House|title=Map of Freedom in the World|access-date=14 June 2010|archive-date=23 December 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111223054815/http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=363&year=2010&country=7788|url-status=dead}}

Political scientist Glauco Peres notes that the party's move toward conservatism came "in stages," from "the liberal policies and major privatizations of the Cardoso era" to the gradual emergence of a "conservative and religious discourse" in the early 2010s to the failed campaign of the party's right-wing presidential candidate Aecio Neves in 2014.{{Cite news|url=https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2019/12/26/la-droite-bresilienne-veut-seduire-les-bolsonaristes-moderes_6024103_3210.html|title = La droite brésilienne veut séduire les bolsonaristes " modérés "|newspaper = Le Monde.fr|date = 26 December 2019}}

Workers' Party campaign leader Marco Aurélio Garcia criticized declarations made by PSDB president Sérgio Guerra that PSDB is "the real left". He said that "PSDB is not a right wing party, it is the party of the right wing".[https://politica.estadao.com.br/noticias/geral,garcia-psdb-nao-e-partido-de-direita-e-da-direita,495794 "Garcia: 'PSDB não é partido de direita, é da direita'"].

The PSDB questions the use of what it considers "outdated political labels" such as "left" and "right". To quote a document drafted by Fernando Henrique Cardoso's office in 1990: "If left means to be against the existing social order, and right in favor, then social-democracy is without doubt a left current. [...] A social democrat is before anything else someone who has critical sense — who realizes the injustices of society and has no fear to oppose them, even at the risk of being taken as a subversive or a dreamer".

The party did not preach nationalization or privatization in general ("the consensus is that the state must not be too big or too small, but 'have the size and functions corresponding to the needs of the whole of society'"), yet President Cardoso privatized many large public companies, such as Companhia Vale do Rio Doce and the national telecommunication system. Many political scientists in Brazil believed that the party in its antagonism with the PT made a move to the right in recent years to fill a void in the Brazilian political spectrum and to put a certain distance between itself and the PT's political views, which also moved more to the right (from the far-left or left to the centre-left) in the 1990s in order to be elected.

The main electoral base of the party is the State of São Paulo, where the party triumphed in all but three major elections to executive office. The party also has a stronghold in other regions which reject the PT, like Espirito Santo, and in some southern and mid-western states. Unlike the PT, the party has more success in more local elections in the same areas that often vote for the PT in national elections, like the North and Northeastern regions and Minas Gerais. Many leaders of the party come from these regions, like Tasso Jereisatti, Aécio Neves, Teotonio Vilela Filho, Cassio Cunha Lima, Sergio Guerra and Simão Jatene. However, the party has not succeeded in transforming this into results in presidential elections, partly because of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's charisma and partly because of internal infighting.

Most rejection of the party comes from the State of Rio de Janeiro, where the positioning of the party in the Brazilian centre and centre-right often loses to PMDB and another parties with less national representation, like the Brazilian Republican Party, the Democrats, Progressistas and the Social Christian Party. The only victory of the party in Rio occurred in 1994, when the majority of voters in the state supported FHC in the presidential election and the toucans Artur da Tavola and Marcello Alencar were elected to the senate and state governorship, respectively. PT is also strongly rejected in Rio, however less than PSDB.

Despite being considered a centre-left party by their own members, media and by the Brazilian right, the PSDB has little or no appeal to the majority of Brazilian left. The majority of support and bases of tucanos comes from right-wing sectors like conservative Christians, professionals, the middle and upper middle class, farmers, landowners and business owners. Reasons for this support derive from the more moderate rhetoric and ideology of the party compared with the PT, the major economic reforms which the party led in the 1990s, and the major influence of the Democrats in the party.

This support is not viewed well inside the "old guard" of the party. Many tucanos often publicly express their discomfort with the party. Even Cardoso, the most successful figure in the party's history, constantly criticizes such PSDB politicians as Colonel Telhada, a former police officer who was elected a deputy in São Paulo with proposals such as reducing the age of defense of infancy, harsher penalties for criminals and appealing to the evangelical churches, of which Telhada is a member; and João Dória Junior, mayor of São Paulo between 2016 and 2018 and governor of the state of São Paulo since 2019. Dória is often accused of populism, demagoguery, opportunism, personalism, self-promotion, market fundamentalism and aggressive exploitation of anti-Workers' Party sentiment within the populace. These antagonisms persist between the voter base together with the new members who joined the party based on right-wing sentiment of opposition to the Workers' Party versus the party elite and older members with more left-liberal, progressive, social democratic and pragmatic views, thus an important factor in the often internal rifts between tucanos.

In 2017, a group of new, young federal representatives, nicknamed "blackheads", in reference to their youth (contrasting the gray or bald heads of older and progressive members), began to gain prominence in the party. This wing, made up of members in their 30s or younger, has shown strong opposition to support of the party for the government of President Michel Temer and a far more support for economic liberalism than the old party members like José Serra and Aloysio Nunes. Blackheads now occupy important positions inside the party and with support of the base and social movements like the Free Brazil Movement have the capacity to push the party more to the right-wing of the Brazilian political spectrum.

In the 2018 general election, the party suffered the greatest defeat in its history as Geraldo Alckmin came in fourth in the presidential election with less than 5% of votes and the party fell to 10th position in number of representatives in the Chamber of Deputies, with fewer representatives than the Democrats. The key reasons for this failure were the corruption scandals of Aécio Neves, the party's support for the government of Michel Temer, the lack of charisma and wrong strategies of Alckmin in the presidential campaign, which chose to attack the right-wing populist candidate Jair Bolsonaro from a progressive viewpoint instead of attacking the traditional rival PT, and a continuing domination of old leftist leaders instead of new and more liberal members with stronger connection with the voter base over the party. They support Bolsonaro and his Social Liberal Party smashed the voter base of the party. The PSDB faced a runoff in three of the four biggest states, namely São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio Grande do Sul, all of them with more pro-free market and centre-right views than Alckmin. PSDB triumphed in São Paulo with João Doria Junior, Rio Grande do Sul with Eduardo Leite and in the agrarian state of Mato Grosso do Sul with Reinaldo Azambuja, also a centre-right candidate.

According to researcher Christophe Ventura, the party's candidates are often evangelicals, multimillionaires and entrepreneurs. They present themselves as "managers" rather than "politicians".According to researcher Christophe Ventura, the party's candidates are often evangelicals, multimillionaires and entrepreneurs. They present themselves as "managers" opposed to "politicians".

• Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former President of Brazil
• José Serra, former senator for São Paulo, former Minister of Health, Minister of Foreign Affairs and presidential candidate for 2002 and 2010
• Aécio Neves, former party president, current federal deputy for Minas Gerais, former senator for Minas Gerais and presidential candidate for 2014
• João Doria, former governor of São Paulo and former presidential candidate for 2022, former member
• Geraldo Alckmin, former governor of São Paulo and presidential candidate for 2006 and 2018, former member

• Eduardo Leite, current governor of Rio Grande do Sul, former member
• Raquel Lyra, current governor of Pernambuco, former member
• Eduardo Riedel, current governor of Mato Grosso do Sul
• Tasso Jereissati, former party president and former senator for Ceará
• Plínio Valério, current senator for Amazonas
• Izalci Lucas, current senator for the Federal District, former member
• Mara Gabrilli, current senator for São Paulo and candidate for vice president in 2022, former member
• Alessandro Vieira, current senator for Sergipe, former member
• José Serra, former Senator for São Paulo
• Reinaldo Azambuja, former governor of Mato Grosso do Sul
• Ranolfo Vieira Júnior, former governor of Rio Grande do Sul
• Rodrigo Garcia, former governor of São Paulo, former member
• {{ill|Carlos Almeida (Brazilian politician)|pt|Carlos Almeida|lt=Carlos Almeida}}, former vice governor of Amazonas
• Paulo Brant, former vice governor of Minas Gerais, former member

• Adolfo Viana, current federal deputy for Bahia and party floor leader at the Chamber of Deputies
• Geovania de Sá, current federal deputy for Santa Catarina and third secretary of the Chamber of Deputies
• Aécio Neves, current federal deputy for Minas Gerais and chairman of the Committee for External Relations and National Defence
• Álvaro Costa Dias, current mayor of Natal
• Cinthia Ribeiro, current mayor of Palmas
• Hildon Chaves, current mayor of Porto Velho
• Maurício Carvalho, current vice mayor of Porto Velho

{{For|more|2021 PSDB presidential primary}}

{{Notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Official website|psdb.org.br}} {{in lang|pt}}
• [http://www.itv.org.br Official website of Institute of Political studies of the party] {{in lang|pt}}

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{{succession box|title=Numbers of Brazilian Official Political Parties|before=44 – UNION (UNIÃO)|after=50 – SOLP (PSOL)|years=45 – BSDP (PSDB)}}

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{{Brazil political parties}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Political parties established in 1988

Category:Neoliberal parties

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Category:Christian democratic parties in South America

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