Socialism and Liberty Party

Socialism and Liberty Party Partido Socialismo e Liberdade
President	Luiz Araújo
Founded	June 6, 2004
Headquarters	SDS, Edificio Venâncio V, Loja 28 Brasília
Membership	104,163
Ideology	Democratic socialism Anti-capitalism[1]
Political position	Left-wing to Far-left
International affiliation	Different groups in PSOL have different international affiliations.
Colours	Red, Yellow
TSE Identification Number	50
Seats in the Chamber of Deputies	6 / 513
Seats in the Senate	0 / 81
Governors	0 / 27
Seats in the Legislative Assemblies of the States	11 / 1,049
Mayors	1 / 5,570
Seats in City Councils	49 / 56,810
Website
http://psol50.org.br/
Politics of Brazil Political parties Elections

The Socialism and Freedom Party (Portuguese: Partido Socialismo e Liberdade IPA: [paʁˈtʃidu sosjɐˈlizmw i libeʁˈdadʒi], (PSOL) IPA: [peˈsɔw]) is a Brazilian political party with 104,440 active members. PSOL is a leftist party which is self-described as a socialist and democratic party.

The party leaders are Heloísa Helena (Alagoas), federal deputies Luciana Genro (Rio Grande do Sul) and Babá (Pará), and a number of well-known Brazilian left-wing leaders and intellectuals, such as Milton Temer, Michael Löwy, Jean Wyllys, Vladimir Safatle, Marcelo Freixo, Chico Alencar, Plínio de Arruda Sampaio, Renato Roseno, Carlos Nelson Coutinho, Ricardo Antunes, Francisco de Oliveira, João Machado, Pedro Ruas and others.

PSOL was formed after Heloísa Helena, Luciana Genro, Babá and João Fontes (also a federal deputy, now a member of the Democratic Labour Party, PDT) were expelled from the Workers' Party, after voting against the pension reform proposed by Lula. They opposed to liberal decisions of Lula's government and the Worker's Party alliances with polemic right-wing politicians, as the former presidents José Sarney and Fernando Collor.

After collecting more than 438,000 signatures, PSOL became Brazil's 29th officially recognized political party, the first to do so by this method. PSOL claims to be the left-wing opposition to the current government, which is a coalition including the Worker's Party.

Ideology

PSOL defends a democratic socialism, in which capitalism should be overthrown, for its role in harming the environment, creating wars, and enhancing social inequality. The party considers the production in a capitalist society as selfish and destructive, which aims profit solely, thus threatening every form of life on earth. PSOL supports workers' union and their rights. It believes abortion should be legal under all circumstances and proposes legalization of marijuana.

Members of the National Congress

Following the 2010 general election, PSOL currently has one senator and five federal deputies in the National Congress of Brazil. Although being very small in parliament PSOL is the 5th most popular party in Brazil,^[2] and it is recognized as different from the bigger PSDB and PT parties and the cronyist and catch-all parties without an ideology.

It is the only party present in the Congress which did not receive money from big companies and the only party that claimed the removal of the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Eduardo Cunha.

Federal Deputies

Name	State	Internal tendency
Francisco "Chico" Alencar	RJ
Ivan Valente	SP	Socialist Unity
Edmilson Rodeigues	PA	Socialist Unity
Jean Wyllys	RJ	independent
Glauber Braga	RJ	independent

Former deputies: Maninha (DF), João Fontes (SE), Luciana Genro (RS), Babá (DF), Orlando Fantazzini (SP) and João Alfredo (CE).

Notes: The military union leader, Corporal Daciolo (RJ), was expelled from the party in 2015.

State Deputies

Name	State	Internal tendency
Marcelo Freixo	RJ	independent
Paulo Ramos	RJ	Socialist Unity
Flávio Serafini	RJ	Insurgency
Eliomar Coelho	RJ	independent
Doctor Julianelli	RJ	independent
Raul Marcelo	SP	1st May
Carlos Giannazi	SP	independent
Fabrício Furlan	Amapá	independent
Professor Paulo Lemos	Amapá	Socialist Unity
Renato Roseno	Ceará	Insurgency
Edilson Silva	Pernambuco	We're PSOL (Socialist Unity)
Pedro Ruas	Rio Grande do Sul	Left Socialist Movement

Mayors

Name	Municipality	Internal tendency
Clécio Luís	Macapá	Popular Socialist Action
Gelsimar Gonzaga	Itaocara

Elections

2006

PSOL launched Heloísa Helena to run for president in 2006 elections. The vice-presidential candidate was intellectual César Benjamin. The party ran in a left-wing ticket along with two other parties: trotskyist United Socialist Workers' Party (PSTU) and communist Brazilian Communist Party (PCB).

The alliance was extended to gubernatorial elections. In Minas Gerais, for instance, Vanessa Portugal, from the PSTU, ran for governor with PSOL's support, although not with PCB's. Prominent PSOL gubernatorial candidates were Plínio de Arruda Sampaio in São Paulo, Milton Temer in Rio de Janeiro and Roberto Robaina in Rio Grande do Sul. However, they were all defeated.

Heloísa Helena finished the presidential race in the third place, receiving 6.5 million votes throughout the country (6.85% of the valid votes). Three federal deputies, Luciana Genro, Chico Alencar and Ivan Valente, managed to get re-elected.

2010

In the 2010 candidate for presidential election Plínio de Arruda Sampaio received 888.000 votes (0,87%). Plinio presented an agrarian reform project in 1964 when he was federal deputy, but the 1964 Military Coup ended the project and Plinio lost his mandate. Although he received very few votes Plinio became famous after the elections because he was qualified as an anti-candidate.

PSOL elected three deputies again, Chico Alencar, Ivan Valente and Jean Wyllys, who is compared to American politician Harvey Milk and have become the best Brazilian deputy according to journalists.

Toninho do PSOL from Federal District got the best gubernatorial result. He finished in third place with 14,25%.

2012

In 2012 PSOL got its best results so far. Clecio Luis and Gelsimar Gonzaga were elected mayors in Macapá, Amapá's state capital, and Itaocara.

In the northern second largest city Belém and in Rio de Janeiro, PSOL finished second and elected four city councillors - the second largest group in those councils. In Belem Edmilson Rodrigues got 43,39% and in Rio de Janeiro Marcelo Freixo got 28,15%, almost 1 million votes.

In São Paulo, Fortaleza, Campinas, Belo Horizonte, Curitiba, Salvador, Natal, Florianópolis, Niterói, São Gonçalo and Pelotas PSOL also got respectable results. In the 2012 49 city councilors from PSOL were elected.

2014

The former federal deputy Luciana Genro, from Left Socialist Movement, was the candidate in the 2014 Presidential Elections. She got 1,612,186 votes finishing in 4th place. She received the support of important Brazilian intellectuals and popstars like Chico de Oliveira, Rogério Arantes, Vladimir Safatle, Michel Löwy, Gregorio Duvivier, Valesca Popozuda, Zélia Duncan, Karina Buhr, Clara Averbuck, Marina Lima, Juca Kfouri, Preta Gil, Laerte Coutinho, Marcelo Yuka and the international popstar Jessica Sutta. Her candidature was well regarded in the LGBT community.

In the second term the party supported the reelection of Dilma Rousseff, been criticized by many electors that found the previously opposition message just a lie to win votes.

PSOL elected 5 federal deputies and 12 state deputies. Marcelo Freixo (RJ) received the highest vote for a state deputy in Brazil with 350,408 votes. Carlos Giannazi was the leftist most voted in São Paulo with 164,929 votes.

Governors Tarcísio Motta (RJ) with 8.92% (14.62% in city of Rio Janeiro) and Robério Paulino (RN) with 8.74% (22.45% in capital Natal) got excellent results. Senate candidate Heloísa Helena (AL) got 31.86%, but she lost the election to former Brazilian president Fernando Collor de Mello, who was impeached.

Electoral results

Presidential

Election year	Candidate	1st round		2nd round
		# of overall votes	% of overall vote	# of overall votes	% of overall vote
2006	Heloísa Helena	6,575,393	6.9 (#3)
2010	Plínio de Arruda Sampaio	886,816	0.9 (#4)
2014	Luciana Genro	1,612,186	1.6 (#4)

Congress

Chamber of Deputies

Election year	# of overall votes	% of overall vote	# of overall seats won	+/-	Government	Notes
2006	1,149,619	1.2	3 / 513		in opposition
2010	1,142,737	1.2	3 / 513	0	in opposition
2014	1,745,470	1.8	5 / 513	2	in opposition

Senate

Election year	# of overall votes	% of overall vote	# of overall seats won	+/-	Notes
2006	351,527	0.4	0 / 27
2010	3,041,854	1.8	2 / 45	2

References

1. Program (Portuguese)
2. http://psol50.org.br/site/noticias/2131/mesmo-sem-candidato-definido-a-presidencia-da-republica-psol-e-citado-em-pesquisa-espontanea