National Labour Party (Brazil, 1945-1965)

The National Labour Party (O Partido Trabalhista Nacional - PTN) was a Brazilian political party of the Fourth Republic. It came into being in 1945, when the Estado Novo of Getulio Vargas was liberalised after the end of World War Two. Ideologically, the party represented more conservative and traditionalist sections of the labour movement. Although the PTN never became as influential as the three main parties of the Fourth Republic (the PTB, PSD and UDN), it did serve, from 1954 until its dissolution in 1965, as the political vehicle for one consequential figure, Jânio Quadros, governor of São Paulo (1955-59), and very briefly president of Brazil (January 31st to August 25th 1961). Quadros' premature resignation from the presidency, in a failed gamble to increase his powers, triggered the Legality Campaign (a Campanha da Legalidade), which contributed significantly to the political instability leading to the military coup of 1964. In the wake of the 1964 coup d'état, along with every other party, the PTN was oulawed on October 27th 1965 by Institutional Act #2. In 1995, 30 years after the PTN's enforced extinction, a new party was created with the same name, claiming historical lineage, and in 2016 this party was renamed to Podemos. The PTN was formed in 1945 by people linked to the Ministry of Labour who were seeking to create a trade union movement independent of Getulio Vargas' PTB. Among its early members was the samba artist Paulo de Portela, who was never elected to any political office before his relatively early death in 1949. In its first months, the party supported the candidacy of Eurico Gaspar Dutra for the presidency of the Republic. In elections for the National Constituent Assembly held on December 2, 1945, the party participated in a coalition in São Paulo with the Progressive Republican Party (PRP), which was renamed the following year as the Social Progressive Party (PSP). In 1946, Hugo Borghi, an agro-industrial entrepreneur, owner of several radio stations, and the leader of the São Paulo PTB, withdrew from the PTB due to his disagreements with the party leadership.