Workers' Party (Brazil)

Workers' Party (Brazil)

The Workers' Party (Portuguese: Partido dos Trabalhadores, PT) is a centre-left political party in Brazil. Launched in 1980, it is recognized as one of the largest and most important left-wing movements of Latin America. It governs at the federal level in a coalition government with several other parties since January 1, 2003. After the 2010 parliamentary election, PT became the largest party in the Chamber of Deputies and the second largest in the Federal Senate for the first time ever. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the President with the highest approval rating in the history of the country, is PT's most prominent member. His successor, Dilma Rousseff, is also a member of PT; she took office on January 1, 2011. The party's symbols are the red flag with a white star in the center; the five-pointed red star, inscribed with the initials "PT" in the center; and the Workers Party' s anthem. Workers' Party's TSE (Supreme Electoral Court) Identification Number is 13.

Born together as part of the social democratic opposition to the military dictatorship from the late 1970s trough the 1980s, PT and the Social Democracy Party are since the mid-1990s the bitterest enemies in Brazilian politics — both parties prohibit any kind of coalition or official cooperation with each other in all government levels.