With the loss of prominent affiliates in 2021 and the prospect that the party coalitions will not return, the DEM elite decided to negotiate a “body that could carry its content” as the protagonists of the legend. sheet privately.

On the one hand, the PSL, with 53 congressmen in the House, is expected to have one of the biggest televised events in 2022 beyond solid campaign and party preparations.

On the other hand, DEM, a party that already had golden moments in the government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso (PSDB), but which today, with a private meeting of 28 MPs, does not have the meaning it once had.

The merger of both acronyms (with the inclusion of DEM in the PSL) in assessing DEM leaders, in addition to the issue of survival due to changes in the election rules, aims to ensure the relevance of the two parties after the 2022 elections.

This is because PSL lasted about 25 years, from its founding in 1994 until 2018, when it hosted the surprise election of Jair Bolsonaro for the presidency of the republic.

The wave of Pocket Narist forced the party to elect the second largest caucus in the House and, as a result, have the second largest share of the party and electoral state budget as of 2019.

However, without Bolsonaro, who dropped the acronym in 2019, PSL is unlikely to have a performance close to what it achieved in 2018, even with a full campaign coffin.

The 2020 municipal elections were previews. The party elected 90 mayors, none of them in major cities.

The DEM, on the other hand, is far from the heyday of the 1980s and 1990s, when, under the name PFL (Party of the Liberal Front), it had the largest assembly in the House and presided over two chambers of Congress, in addition to having the Vice Presidency of the Republic. …

With the coming to power of the PT, the party followed the path of the opposition and fell into decay. In 2007, in an attempt to renew himself, he changed the team and changed his name to DEM. In 2014, she hit rock bottom, electing just 21 federal deputies.

The party took on a new lease of life following the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff (PT) in 2016 and the election of Rodrigo Maia (RJ) as President of the House. In 2019, he also won the Senate with Davi Alcolumbre (AP).

However, Maya’s succession in 2021 resulted in a split in the party. His candidate Baleya Rossi (MDB-SP) was defeated by Arthur Lear (PP). Maya said he was betrayed by ACM Neto (the current president of the legend) in this controversy, sharply criticized and eventually removed from the acronym he chaired from 2007 to 2011.

“After the erroneous position of the party in the election of the Chamber, there was no other alternative. Either it will be included in the ZPB, or ultimately there will be no political clarity, ”Maya said.

Apart from the loss of the former President of the Chamber, the acronym also marked the departure of Rodrigo García (PSDB), Deputy Governor of São Paulo, and still fears Rodrigo Pacheco (DEM-MG) will leave his signature and transfer to PSD. , for which he was persecuted.

With the creation of the new party, an attempt will be made to keep Pacheco, who is listed as a preliminary candidate for the presidency.

DEM leaders who voice the merger say the marriage will be successful because the party has content and PSL has packaging.

PSL summit attendees estimate that without the merger, the acronym will contain about one minute of national party propaganda from next year. In a merge, this number can increase to one minute and forty seconds.

In terms of the electoral fund, PSL should have about R $ 210 million to invest in campaigns in 2022, and DEM R $ 130 million.

The party will initially have four governors: Ronaldo Cayado (Goias) and Mauro Mendes (Mato Grosso), currently a member of the German Democratic Party, Mauro Carless (Tocantins) and Coronel Marcos Rocha (Rondonia) of PSL.

The House and Senate benches will initially be the largest, with 81 deputies and 8 senators, but as there are differences in both parties, a disengagement is expected next year.

The DEM president, ACM Neto, believes that the parties share the same ideologies.

“Obviously there are a lot of overlaps that put us at the same table. Whether we have a merger will depend on ongoing conversations and the approval of each side by the majority and colleagues, ”Neto said. sheet…

The acronyms are working on the statute of the new party, which is already in its third version.

One of the merger agreements is that the new legend will not rise to the Bolsonaro catwalk. The idea is to have your own candidate in 2022. In addition to Pacheco, the names of the host Jose Luis Daten (PSL) and the former Minister of Health Luis Enrique Mandetta (DEM) are mentioned.

The new party will be led by the current PSL President, Federal MP Luciano Bivar (PE). DEM President, ACM Neto, will be the Secretary General.

Adjustments are still needed in four states to complete the merger. Former Minister of Education in the Temer government (MDB) Mendonsa Filho, a key DEM employee, believes the merger is due to the need to adapt cuts to changes in election rules.

“This is a complex novelty, but I cannot perpetuate a situation that is structurally and strongly changing. Power in quotation marks is legitimized if it is supported by the ballot box, by the voter. And I believe that a party should have a plurality, it cannot and will not by a notary. This is a precondition set out in the negotiations [ACM] Grandson, ”Mendonça said.

The former minister, who has a strong influence on the party structure in Pernambuco, should head the catalog of the new acronym in Recife. Bivar will command the state structure of the legend.

There are concerns among DEM members that the PSL may want to overthrow the party and unilaterally determine the direction of state directorates. This is because the PSL is known as a one-man “autocratic” party, which, in this case, is Bivar.

Mendonça Filho, however, believes that there is a lot of talk in the regional negotiations and that this will be the tone of the new party if created.

“I’m not afraid to lose. I have never been attached to this. I’ve always been an idealist and never behaved like a party owner and I don’t feel like a party owner. I trust my stick, my political ability. As long as the rules are clear, republican and democratic, it is not difficult for me to live together. “

“This is a party that will have a lot of breathing space, debate, talk and sometimes electoral controversy,” Mendonça continued.

MP Juscelino Filho (DEM-MA), who is also negotiating the structure of the future acronym in the state, says DEM will actively participate in the national directory and representation in the states. “We are expecting a situation that several parties will go through,” he says …

A sheet he looked for other historical figures in the party, such as former Rio Mayor Cesar Maya and former Senator Jorge Bornhausen (who left DEM in 2011), but they were reluctant to speak out.

In addition to being one of the main leaders in the creation of the PFL in 1985, Bornhausen made a final attempt to keep Fernando Collora in the presidency in 1992, and in 2005, during the monthly payments scandal, he even claimed that he was happy about it. Brazil is predicted to be free of “this race for the next 30 years” regarding PT.

Lula was re-elected the following year. Bornhausen has always denied that he used the term “race” as a “biased designation of ethnicity”, but rather as “camarilla, square dance, group.”

DEM timeline

• 1980: the PDS is created – a party that has united the majority of supporters of the military regime. They used to be part of the Arena, which became extinct after the end of the bipartisan system in Brazil.

• 1985 year: After Paulo Maloof won an internal dispute over the party name in the indirect presidential election, dissidents left the SDP and founded the NFL, the Liberal Front Party.

• 1994: The party reaches its peak by electing the vice-president of the republic. In subsequent years, he will take over the leadership of the House and Senate, and in 1998 will become the largest bench of federal deputies (105 seats).

• 2002: She is trying to promote herself as effectively as possible for the presidency of the republic along with Roseana Sarney (Massachusetts), but the pre-election candidacies of the founders after the operation carried out by the Federal Police in her husband’s office.

• 2007: With PT coming to power in 2003, the PFL declined, and in 2007 it underwent a management update and changed its name to DEM.

• 2011: He suffers another blow with the departure of the then mayor of São Paulo, Gilberto Cassaba, who transfers part of the legend to the acronym he created – PSD.

• 2014: Reaches the lowest point in the Chamber, electing only 21 deputies.

• 2016 Nov.: After the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, he managed to return to the spotlight with the election of Rodrigo Maya (RJ) as President of the House. In 2019, he also becomes President of the Senate with Davi Alcolumbre (AP).

• 2021 g.: Rodrigo Pacheco (DEM-MG) succeeds Alcolumbre as President of the Senate, but is negotiating admission to the SDP in Cassaba. Rodrigo Maya, smashed by the signed dome, is ruled out. DEM is negotiating a merger with PSL

What happened to some of the top names in the party

• Aureliano Chavez (MG): Vice President João Figueiredo, he was one of the founding leaders of the PFL. He ran for president in 1989, but ended up in 9th position. He died in 2003 at the age of 74.

• Jorge Bornhausen (South Carolina): One of the top leaders of the NFL, he was a minister, governor of Santa Catarina and a senator. In 2007, in the process of updating, during which the name of the acronym was changed to DEM, he handed over the team to Rodrigo Maya, moving away from political attention. In 2010, he left the legend behind in a process that culminated in Kassab’s departure. He is now 83 years old

• Marco Maciel (PE): Another of the founding leaders of the NFL was vice president of the republic from 1995 to 2002. After that, he was a senator but was defeated in his bid for re-election in 2010. He died in June at this age. out of 80

• Luis Eduardo Magallains (BSc)A: He was President of the House, and his father, ACM, and PFL made a bid to become President of the Republic. However, in 1998, at the age of 43, he was killed by a massive heart attack.

• Roseana Sarney (Massachusetts): Governor Maranhao was on the list of favorites for the 2002 presidential campaign, but her candidacy was rejected after federal police confiscated more than 1 million reais in cash from her husband’s office. In 2006, he left the PFL, supporting Lula’s candidacy.

• Jose Roberto Arruda (DF): A former government leader in the Senate (then PSDB), he stepped down in the wake of the electronic panel breach scandal. In the NFL, he was elected federal deputy and governor of the DF. In 2010, he was removed from office and arrested as a result of the monthly payment to DEM, a bribery scandal during his reign. Today at PL. The woman, Flavia Arruda, is the minister of the Bolsonaro government.

• Cesar Maya (RJ): Rodrigo Maya’s father, he served as mayor of Rio for three terms and is now a member of the council.

• Rodrigo Maya (RJ): He took over as party president in 2007 when the NFL was renamed DEM, but peaked when he managed to be elected President of the House in 2016, and held that position until January 2021. Accusing the current president of the acronym for high treason. , ACM Neto, has been removed from subtitles

• Gilberto Cassab (JV): Joining the PFL in the 90s, he was mayor of São Paulo, but left the acronym in 2011 to found PSD.

• ACM Net (BA): The current president of DEM and grandson of the ACM, he was twice mayor of El Salvador.