In the previous year, a series of rallies known as Diretas Já gathered thousands of peoples in the streets of major cities to demand the direct election of the next President, as envisaged in the Dante de Oliveira amendment, which was pending approval in the Congress.

On January 10, 1984, PDS rejected supporting this proposition, but a pro-Diretas Já faction emerged within the party a few days later.

With the support of Aureliano Chaves, Marco Maciel, Antônio Carlos Magalhães, and Jorge Bornhausen, among other major dissidents from PDS, the Liberal Front named José Sarney as Neves' running mate for the 1985 presidential election.

Due to the same electoral law that forbade coalitions, Sarney was forced to join PMDB, of which he is still a member today.

His daughter, Roseana, was a member of PFL until 2006, when she was expelled from the party for supporting Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

PFL's Senators, however, had masterminded the candidacy of businessman and television presenter Silvio Santos, a maneuver which had been hampered by the Superior Electoral Court.

Prior to the 2002 election, an operation led by the Federal Police in Maranhão undermined the presidential candidacy of Roseana Sarney, leading to a rupture with the government.

However, this governorship was later lost due to a corruption scandal in which Governor José Roberto Arruda was caught on tape receiving bribery from private companies.

A possible merge with PMDB, however, has been rejected by most of DEM's leaders due to the fact that it is a member of the Lulista alliance in the National Congress and in most local level administrations.

In 2011, it suffered another decline in its membership when São Paulo mayor Kassab founded the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and took prominent DEM members such as Senator Kátia Abreu, Santa Catarina governor Raimundo Colombo, and former vice-presidential candidate Indio da Costa with him.

Defunct The DEM claimed to be an advocate of ethics, democracy, the exercise of human rights, the market economy, and economic liberalism.

According to political scientist Jairo Nicolau, the name change was intended to crown a process of modernization inside the party.