Brazilian Labour Party
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The Brazilian Labour Party (PTB) (Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro) is the name of two different parties, a historical one and another in the present days. The former was a leftist political party that arose in 1945 supported by followers of Getúlio Vargas and later dissolved after 1964 military coup. In 1981 a center-right party was formed under the legacy of the former.
The early days of the party were of much more prestige compared to nowadays, and showed many different characteristics from the ones observed in its present form. The party was founded by followers of former president Getúlio Vargas. PTB grew in the shadow of Vargas, the most important Brazilian politician of the 20th century. It was characterized by working-class support and some leftist policies. From 1945 to 1962 the PTB was the third force in Brazilian politics, after the Social Democratic Party (Brazil) (PSD) and the National Democratic Union (UDN), but became more popular than the UDN in the 1962 Congressional elections. In 1950, the PTB elected Getúlio Dornelles Vargas for his second term. Since the party was a close ally of the PSD, it remained in power when Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira of the PSD was elected president in 1955.
Vargas committed suicide in 1954, and his heir João Goulart become the central figure in the party along with the populist Leonel Brizola. Goulart was elected vice-president in 1955 and 1960, becoming president in 1961 after the resignation of Jânio Quadros. The PTB was in power again, but Goulart was overthrown by a military coup d'état in 1964. Various PTB figures were removed from the National Congress of Brazil, and all political parties, including the PTB, were dissolved in 1965.
In 1981, the PTB came back to prominence when the military allowed political parties to form again. Ivete Vargas, niece of Getúlio Vargas, became the president of the party. In its current incarnation, the PTB is no longer a leftist party and has moved to the centre-right. At this time a part of the party (The Center-Leftist) leaded by Leonel Brizola broke up with the party and founded the Center-Left party of Democratic Labour Party PDT.
At the last legislative elections, 6 october 2002, the party won 26 out of 513 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 3 out of 81 seats in the Senate. Today PTB participates in the coalition of the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
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