After months of negotiations for a possible merger with PSD or MDB, the PSDB decided to follow another way. According to the president of the acronym, Marconi Perillo, the toucans dismissed the union with the subtitles of Gilberto Kassab and whale Rossi and now work to merge with two smaller parties: Somos and Solidarity.
The decision aims and preserves its programmatic identity. According to the toucan summit, a merger with PSD or MDB could make the PSDB subordinate to these subtitles, which was seen as a risk.
“The party is going in this direction to merge with smaller parties to keep our program, our history. The direction is this. That’s what the base wants and we will do, ”Perillo told the newspaper The globe.
Internal divisions and crisis of representativeness
The possibility of fusion with PSD or MDB generated disagreements within the party, especially in the states. The main impast was in Minas Gerais, where Aécio Neves, one of the party’s main exponents, feared losing political space to Senator Rodrigo Pacheco, who has already shown interests in climbing higher posts in the state executive.
Since Geraldo Alckmin’s presidential defeat in 2018, when he got only 4.76% of the votes, the PSDB has been losing ground in the political scene. João Doria tried to reposition the party, but his attempt to approach Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and the later retreat during the pandemic generated more internal wear.
The toucan weakening was also evident in municipal elections. In 2020, the acronym lost dozens of city halls across the country and, in 2024, for the first time since 1988, could not elect mayors in capital. Currently, the PSDB has.
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Hope in 2026
With the fusion with Somos and Solidarity, the toucans seek electoral survival and already draw plans for the 2026 presidential dispute. The acronym bet is to launch a competitive candidate, even without real chances of victory. Internally, the expectation is that a performance between 7% and 8% of the votes would be enough to rehabilitate the PSDB in the national scenario.
The name is the governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Eduardo Leite. He has already played the toucan previews in 2021, but lost to João Doria. Now, without relevant internal competition, it is seen as the main bet to try to rescue the relevance of the PSDB in Brazilian politics.
The final format of the fusion with Somos and Solidarity is still being defined, but the new party structure is expected to be official in the coming months.
