The National Labour Party (, PTN) was a Brazilian political party of the Fourth Republic. It came into being in 1945, when the Estado Novo of Getúlio Vargas was liberalised after the end of World War II. 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 25, 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 27, 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.
Early History
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 da 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. Without canceling his PTB membership, Borghi allowed himself to be put forward as the PTN's candidate for the governorship. He was defeated in the election of January 1947 and returned to the PTB. After calling a PTB convention he was reelected president of its state directory, but the PTB national leadership refused to recognise the election, and expelled Borghi from the party. Borghi subsequently joined the PTN, bringing with him an entourage of former PTB members, including Emílio Carlos, who he promoted in 1948 to the national leadership of the party, after a power struggle between the PTB dissidents and other pre-existing factions. Borghi also cemented his own control over the São Paulo section of the party.
Ahead of the elections of October 1950 Borghi proposed the merger of the PTN with the PTB, but this proposal was unsuccessful, due to the resistance of Emílio Carlos, who defended the independence of the PTN. Nonetheless, the party supported the candidacy of Getúlio Vargas for the presidency of the Republic, thus allying itself with the PTB. The PTN put forward its own candidate, Hugo Borghi, for the governnorship of São Paulo, but he was defeated by Lucas Nogueira Garcez of the PSP.
Electoral success was negligeable for the PTN in 1950. In São Paulo, the PTN elected five federal deputies (Emílio Carlos, Dario de Barros, Joaquim Coutinho Cavalcanti, Nélson Omegna, Alberto Botino), and just one in Goiás (João d’Abreu), in coalition with the PSP. In state assemblies, the party elected four deputies in Minas Gerais, five in Goiás and nine in São Paulo. At the beginning of 1951 Borghi and some of his followers returned to the PTB, splitting with Emílio Carlos, who remained in the PTN. The PTN now evolved under the supervision of Emílio Carlos, but its electoral capacity remained limited, with São Paulo continuing to be its main electoral base and its expansion to other states, through coalitions, still constrained..