President Paulo Maluf (last) | Headquarters Brasília, DF, Brazil | |
Founded 31 January 1980 (1980-01-31) Dissolved 4 April 1993 (1993-04-04) Preceded by National Renewal Alliance Merged into Reform Progressive Party | ||
The Democratic Social Party (Portuguese: Partido Democrático Social, PDS) was a conservative Brazilian political party.
It was established in 1979 as a continuation of the National Renewal Alliance (ARENA), the party which supported the 1965–79 Brazilian dictatorship, at a time in which the country turned to be a democracy, but the official foundation date is 31 January 1980. 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 for 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 merged with the Christian Democratic Party (3.0% in 1990 elections for the lower house) to form the Reform Progressive Party, which was intended to be a moderate-conservative party.