Movimento Democrático Brasileiro

(MDB)

   / Brazilian Democratic Movement

   The legal opposition political party during the military dictatorship in Brazil (1964–1985). It was created in 1965 as part of a strict two-party system. Its rival, created at the same time, was the Aliança Renovadora Nacional (ARENA, National Alliance for Renewal), a progovernment party. Both parties existed until November 1979, when the two-party system was scrapped.

   Although the government expected the MDB to be moderate in its opposition, a group of MDB congressional members, known as the auténticos, were harsh critics of the military government. The most prominent among them was the former journalist Márcio Moreira Alves, who in 1968 spoke out against the government’s use of repression and torture. In particular, he proposed Operation Lysistrata, named after the play by Aristophanes and calling, facetiously, for Brazilian women to withhold sex from members of the military until the political violence ended. The military, however, was unamused. The government, intending to prosecute Moreira Alves for insulting the military, demanded that Congress remove his congressional immunity. Surprisingly, on 12 December 1968 the ARENA-dominated Congress voted 216 to 141 (with 15 abstentions) against the government’s demand. Nevertheless, Moreira, a marked man, went into voluntary exile, where he remained until President João Baptista de Oliveira Figueiredo decreed a general amnesty in August 1979. Although the MDB would remain the minority party, by the mid-1970s it was making electoral strides and threatening to take control of Congress. In 1979, to break up the opposition, Figueiredo dismantled the two-party system, insisting that each new party use the word partido (party) in its name. The MDB became the Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro (PMDB, Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement). On 15 January 1985 the electoral college met to elect a civilian president, thus ending military rule. To the military’s dismay, Tancredo Neves, an opposition candidate representing the PMDB, won the election.