National Renewal Alliance

The National Renewal Alliance (Portuguese: Aliança Renovadora Nacional, ARENA) was a conservative political party that existed in Brazil between 1966 and 1979. It was the official party of the military that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985.

National Renewal Alliance Aliança Renovadora Nacional
President	Ernesto Geisel (last)
Founded	April 4, 1966
Dissolved	December 20, 1979
Merger of	National Democratic Union, Social Democratic Party (partly) Party of Popular Representation
Succeeded by	Democratic Social Party
Headquarters	Brasília, D.F., Brazil
Ideology	National conservatism Brazilian nationalism Militarism Authoritarianism Protectionism Anti-communism Social conservatism National security
Political position	Right-wing to far-right[1]
Colours	Dark blue
Party flag
Politics of Brazil Political parties Elections

Up to 1965, there were three main parties in Brazil: the left-wing populist Brazilian Labour Party (PTB), the centrist Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the conservative National Democratic Union (UDN). In 1964, the government of President João Goulart was overthrown by a military coup d'etat, but in contrast to other Latin American dictatorships, the Brazilian military-controlled government did not abolish Congress. Instead, in 1965, the government banned all existing political parties and created a two-party system. ARENA, the pro-government party, was formed by politicians from the bulk of the UDN, the right wing of the PSD, and the bulk of the integralist Party of Popular Representation. The main body of the PSD joined most of the PTB in forming the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB), the opposition.

ARENA had no real ideology other than support for the military, who used it mostly to rubber-stamp its agenda. In the elections of 1966 and 1970, ARENA won a vast majority of seats. Most agree that, at first, the MDB did not have any chance to pass or block any legislation. It also rubber-stamped the military leadership's choice of president. Under the military's constitution, the president was nominally elected by an absolute majority of both chambers meeting in joint session. In practice, ARENA's majority was so massive that its candidate could not possibly be defeated. During most of the early part of the military regime, Brazil was, for all intents and purposes, a one-party state. Indeed, during the first two elections under military rule, the MDB didn't even put up a presidential candidate.

However, ARENA was not completely subservient. For example, in the late 1968 President Artur da Costa e Silva demanded that Congress prosecute a deputy for suggesting that women should refuse to dance with military cadets. Congress turned the demand down, prompting Costa e Silva to issue the heavy-handed Fifth Institutional Act, which allowed him to close Congress and rule by decree. Almost as soon as he signed AI-5 into law, Costa e Silva used its provisions to close Congress for almost two years, thus placing Brazil under a tight dictatorship.

In the legislative elections of 1974, MDB took many more seats than expected. It actually won a majority in the Senate, and came up just short of a majority in the Chamber of Deputies. The government reacted by passing legislation restricting the power of the opposition, and even succeeded in annulling the mandates of some Congressmen of the MDB.

In 1979, in a manoeuvre to divide the opposition, the government ended the bipartisan party system, and ARENA was dissolved when the new political parties law became effective on 20 December 1979.[2] In January 1980, most of ARENA's former members founded the Democratic Social Party (PDS) as a continuation of ARENA.

Electoral history

Presidential elections

Election	Party candidate	Running mate	Colligation	Votes	%	Votes	%	Result
				First Round		Second Round
1966	Artur da Costa e Silva (ARENA)	Pedro Aleixo (ARENA)	None	294	100%	-	-	Elected
1969	Emílio Garrastazu Médici (ARENA)	Augusto Rademaker (ARENA)	None	293	100%	-	-	Elected
1974	Ernesto Geisel (ARENA)	Adalberto Pereira dos Santos (ARENA)	None	400	84%	-	-	Elected
1978	João Figueiredo (ARENA)	Aureliano Chaves (ARENA)	None	355	61.10%	-	-	Elected

Chamber of Deputies and Senate elections

Election	Chamber of Deputies					Federal Senate					Government
	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Position	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Position
1966	8,731,638	64.0%	277 / 409	277	1st	7,719,382	56.6%	19 / 23	19	1st	Government
1970	10,867,814	69.5%	223 / 310	54	1st	20,524,470	60.4%	40 / 46	21	1st	Government
1974	11,866,599	52.2 %	203 / 364	20	1st	10,067,796	41.0%	6 / 22	34	2nd	Government
1978	15,053,387	50.4%	231 / 422	28	1st	13,116,194	42.9%	15 / 23	5	1st	Government

References

1. "Golpe de 1964: o que foi, contexto histórico, acontecimentos". Brasil Escola.
2. "PRESIDÊNCIA DA REPÚBLICA". www.planalto.gov.br (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2020-07-28.