Social Liberal Party (Brazil)
Social Liberal Party Partido Social Liberal | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | PSL |
| President | Luciano Bivar |
| Founded | 30 October 1994 |
| Dissolved | 8 February 2022 |
| Merged into | Brazil Union |
| Headquarters | SHN, Quadra 02, Bloco F, Ed. Executive Office Tower, Sala 1.122 – Brasília, DF |
| Membership (October 2021) | 74,824 |
| Ideology | |
| Political position |
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| Colours | Blue Yellow Green |
| TSE Identification Number | 17 |
| Website | |
| psl | |
The Social Liberal Party (Portuguese: Partido Social Liberal, PSL) was a political party in Brazil, that merged with the Democrats and founded the Brazil Union. Initially a centrist political party, the PSL became a right-wing to far-right party in 2018.
Founded in 1994 as a social-liberal political party by Luciano Bivar, businessman and former president of football club Sport Club do Recife, the PSL was registered on the Superior Electoral Court in 1998. Throughout much of its early history, the PSL didn't have much of any representation in national politics and mostly remained as the personal party of Bivar. During the 2006 Brazilian general election, Bivar was launched as a presidential candidate and received only 0.06% of the votes. In 2015, the PSL started a modernization and reformation process, harboring the economic liberal and social liberal movement Livres, to emphasize the party's affiliation with social liberalism.
However, in January 2018, former Social Christian Party politician Jair Bolsonaro joined the party in preparation for his presidential campaign and converted it into a far-right party, defending economically liberal, Brazilian nationalist, radically anti-communist and social conservative. The original name remained after the ideological shift, and after Livres (the party's original main wing) left the party and formed their own political movement to continue the party's original goals. Bolsonaro became the party's nominee for the 2018 Brazilian general election and won in both rounds. Many Bolsonarist supporters joined PSL and the party was able to elect 52 federal deputies and 4 federal senators, as well as state governors of Rondônia, Roraima and Santa Catarina, and multiple state deputies in multiple state assemblies. Bolsonaro left the party in 2019 after disagreements with its president, Luciano Bivar, and then founded Alliance for Brazil, later joining the Liberal Party in 2021.
On 6 October 2021, the party voted to merge with the Democrats to establish the Brazil Union party.