President Roberto Jefferson Founded 3 November 1981 | Founder Ivete Vargas Membership 1,173,577 | |
 | ||
Headquarters SAS, Qd. 1, Bloco M, Ed. Libertas, Loja 101
Brasilia, Brazil Ideology Populism
Nationalism
Big tent | ||
The Brazilian Labour Party (Portuguese: Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro, PTB) is a centrist political party in Brazil founded in 1981 by Ivete Vargas, niece of President Getúlio Vargas. It claims the legacy of the historical PTB, although many historians reject this because the early version of PTB was a center-left party with wide support in the working class.
Contents
History
In 1981, the military dictatorship that had dismatled the historic PTB decided to revoke its legislation which enforced a two-party state. Ivete Vargas, niece of Getúlio Vargas, became the president of the party.
Soon thereafter, a center-left wing of PTB, led by Leonel Brizola, a member of the original PTB, broke with Vargas and founded the social democratic Democratic Labour Party (PDT). This break ensured that the PTB would abandon leftist politics, ultimately embracing centrist politics.
Popular support
At the legislative elections of October 6, 2002, the party won 26 out of 513 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 3 out of 81 seats in the Senate.
Before the 2010 presidential election, PTB participated in the coalition government of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and did not field presidential candidates. The party, however, did not support Lula's candidate to succeed him, Dilma Rousseff (herself a former historical PTB/PDT member), as it embarked on PSDB José Serra's failed campaign for President.