[15] Originally, the MDB was founded on 1965 as part of an enforced two party system by the Brazilian military dictatorship, providing an official, if controlled, opposition.

[17] After the redemocratization of Brazil, MDB became a big tent party without a clear ideological program, seeking to have many members from various positions and different interest groups under its wing.

[18] As such, MDB has been criticized and accused of being a cronyistic "physiological party",[19][20][18] aiming at ensuring proximity to the executive branch in order to guarantee advantages and allow them to distribute privileges through clientelistic networks.

[22] The group which remained reorganized the old MDB as the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (Portuguese: Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro; PMDB).

PMDB had a similar character to its predecessor, including a range of politicians from conservatives such as José Sarney to liberals such as Pedro Simon, leftists like Roberto Requião, populists like Íris Resende, nationalists like Orestes Quércia and the former guerrilla movement MR-8.

Notable PMDB members included: Wanderlei Silva, Tancredo Neves, Ulysses Guimarães, Itamar Franco, Orestes Quércia, Michel Temer, Anthony Garotinho, José Sarney, Renan Calheiros, Pedro Simon, Roberto Requião, Germano Rigotto, Paulo Skaf, Ramez Tebet, Marcelo Fortuna, Iris Rezende and Maguito Vilela.

After the impeachment process began, vice president Michel Temer formed a new center-right liberal coalition government with PSDB and other parties.

The party announced a program based on economic liberalism, fiscal conservatism and greater openness to sectors of civil society such as evangelicals and environmentalists.

A few days earlier, Senator Kátia Abreu of Tocantins was expelled from the party for her support of the opposition, especially for her firm stance against the pension reform, as an alignment to the PT of whom she had been allied in the mandate of Dilma Rousseff.

The company's "institutional relations" manager, Melo Filho, says he can find among the PMDB senators "the parliamentarians most devoted to the group's interests", but also those "who asked for the highest contributions".

Other powerful politicians within the party, like former Rio de Janeiro governor Sérgio Cabral Filho and senator Renan Calheiros, established a neutral political stance, sometimes described as "physiological" by critics.

The party's programme from 2015 is based on the document "Bridge to the Future" detailing the measures to be taken to modernise Brazil, including reform of the labour code, overhaul of the pension system, privatisation of some public companies and reduction of some social rights.