Merger is not the solution.

An electoral setback does not justify a merger of parties. Ideological affinity does.

The Workers' Party (PT) had eight senators and few representatives, and this numerical inferiority did not prevent it from promoting a mobilizing opposition to the Fernando Henrique Cardoso government. The number of parliamentarians is a relevant factor, but it does not determine the nature of a political action.

I am against a possible merger between PSDB and DEM. The former has an obligation to rediscover itself programmatically and in daily practice; the latter should seek the center-right space that may legitimately be its due.

Or does a center-right electorate not exist in Brazil? One that fundamentally believes in liberalism, advocates for a minimal state, the maximum possible self-regulation of markets, and accepts representative democracy as the best political system of all?

Parties like PP and PR, which hasty analysts compare to DEM in terms of ideological alignment, actually serve all governments and exchange loyalty for public office. They implement any program. They would support Fidel in Cuba, Salazar in Portugal, or Obama in the USA.

They don't compete in the segment I see allocated to the DEM party on the Brazilian political spectrum. The DEM's history is better and bigger. It involves the break with the authoritarian regime and the victory of the Tancredo-Sarney ticket in 1984, which initiated the democratic transition.

It involves supporting the successful fight for economic stability, initiated by Itamar Franco and his Finance Minister, Fernando Henrique. It involves the structural reforms that changed Brazil for the better during the two PSDB (Brazilian Social Democracy Party) governments. It involves years of combative opposition to Lula's populism, which wasted a golden age of the world economy, abandoning the reformist project, which was exhausting in the short term, to cultivate irresponsible popularity.

PSDB and DEM are allies with shared services rendered to the country. But they are not the same. One competes for space in the center-left, while the other has at its disposal the center-right segment of the electorate.

I read minor statements, one leader declaring incompatible with another and therefore disagreeing with the merger. Or someone proposing the "salvation" of the current DEM party, as if the defeat of 2010 couldn't hold the key to the emergence of a solid, coherent, resilient, and victorious party.

I'm not thinking about personal or regional conveniences or inconveniences. I'm thinking about the country and the party system we need to build. A united front, bringing together Greeks and Trojans, from communists to dissidents of the military regime, is a tactic that has no place in today's Brazil.

Merger is escapism, a false solution. It seems like an admission of weakness. It would prevent both groups from getting to the heart of their programmatic improvement.

I am against it. And I will express this in any forum, at any time during the debates on the subject.

 *Diplomat, was leader of the PSDB in the Senate.