National Democratic Union

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National Democratic Union or União Democrática Nacional (UDN) was a political party that existed in Brazil between 1945 and 1965. This party was ideologically aligned with the right and liberalism.

At the end of the dictatorship of Getúlio Dornelles Vargas in 1945, political parties were allowed to exist again and to run in the presidential elections of that year. The UDN was set up by opponents of Vargas' regime, in contrast to the other two main Brazilian political parties that were also founded in 1945: the Social Democratic Party (Brazil) (PSD) and the Brazilian Labour Party (PTB).

The UDN was defeated in the presidential elections of 1945, 1950 and 1955, but remained the second power, after the PSD, in the Congress from 1945 until 1962, when it was surpassed by the PTB. The main political figure of the UDN was Carlos Lacerda, a staunch enemy of Getúlio Vargas, whose second presidency (1951-1954) was bitterly opposed by the UDN. An assassination attempt against Lacerda led to Vargas' suicide.

Opponents of the UDN called it a golpista party (i.e., endorsing coups d'état). After three defeats in presidential elections, the UDN came to power in 1961 with Jânio Quadros, a controversial politician whom some called demagogic. Although Quadros was not a UDN member, most of the ministers in the Quadros Cabinet were members of the UDN. Lacerda was soon dissatisfied with Quadros, who resigned after only seven months as president. Then the presidency went to João Goulart, heir of Vargas, whose administration the UDN also opposed. By 1962, the UDN began to conspire with military officers to topple Goulart.

The military coup d'état overthrew the president in 1964, and Lacerda, then governor of Guanabara (City of Rio de Janeiro), hoped to win the scheduled presidential election of 1965. But the military regime cancelled this election and suppressed all the political parties, including UDN, whose members joined the ARENA, the new party that endorsed the military regime.