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Brazilian Liberal Front Party
Liberal Front Party
A manifesto signed by three governors, ten senators, and sixty federal
deputies in December 1984 officially launched the center-right Liberal
Front Party (Partido da Frente Liberal--PFL). In the January 15,
1985, electoral college, the PMDB-Liberal Front-PDS ticket of Tancredo
Neves and José
Sarney received the votes of 102 federal deputies, fifteen senators,
and fifty-one delegates still nominally affiliated with the PDS.
In 1985 the PFL became the second largest party in Congress. It
received a mere 8.8 percent of the votes in the municipal elections
of November 1985, but when Sarney was able to reform the cabinet
inherited from Tancredo Neves in February 1986, the PFL received
six ministries. In 1992 the PFL elected nearly 1,000 mayors, second
only to the PMDB.
Although the PFL is noted for its neoliberal ideology, it is always
predisposed to pragmatic bargaining, such as in 1994, when it abstained
from running its own presidential candidate and joined with the
PSDB and PTB. Although it elected only two governors, it remained
the second largest party in Congress, electing eleven senators and
eighty-nine federal deputies (57 percent from the Northeast),
in addition to the vice president. In Congress the PFL is known
to have the most articulate and cohesive delegation, on a par with
the Workers' Party. As a Cardoso
coalition partner, the PFL received three ministries in 1995. It
became the first-ranked party in 1997.
Data as of April 1997
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