National Democratic Union (Brazil) - History

History

At the end of Getúlio Vargas' Estado Novo regime in 1945, political parties were allowed to reorganize themselves and to run in the general elections of that year. UDN grouped the main leaders which opposed the authoritarian regime of late President. This constant opposition to Vargas was the party's main characteristic. Therefore, its main opponents were the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Brazilian Labour Party (PTB), formed to give support to Vargas among the elite and the working class, respectively.

UDN was defeated in the presidential elections of 1945, 1950 and 1955, but remained the second largest party in the National Congress, second only to PSD, from 1945 until 1962, when it was surpassed by PTB. The main political figure of UDN was Carlos Lacerda, a staunch enemy of Vargas, whose second presidency (1951-1954) was bitterly opposed by UDN. An assassination attempt against Lacerda led to Vargas' suicide. On 1960, UDN preferred not to launch a presidential candidate, supporting the victorious Jânio Quadros instead. Although Quadros was not a UDN member himself, most of the ministers in the Quadros Cabinet were members of UDN. The party was soon dissatisfied with Quadros, who resigned in a clumsy political maneuver. Without UDN's support, Quadros lost the majority of seats in the Congress, and soon found out it was impossible to govern without the backing of the Parliament. On August 21, 1961, just eight months after his inauguration, he resigned, hoping to return to power via popular acclaim.

Vice President João Goulart from PTB (at that time, Brazilians would vote for President and Vice President separately) then took office. As soon as 1962, UDN began to conspire with military officers to topple him. A political protégé of Vargas, Goulart launched a Basic Reforms plan, predicting education reform, land reform, urban reform, electoral reform and tax reform. That was labelled by UDN as a Soviet influence on Brazilian politics. The plan also made PSD withdraw its support to the Goulart government in the National Congress, leaving him in a complicated situation. On April 1964, Goulart was depposed by a US-backed military coup d'état, which had the support of most UDN members. Lacerda, then governor of the Guanabara State hoped to win the scheduled presidential election of 1965. However, the military regime cancelled this election and suppressed all the political parties, including UDN, whose members joined the National Renewal Alliance Party (Aliança Renovadora Nacional - Arena), a new party created to endorse the military regime.