Deputy Carla Castro, who is running for the leadership of the Liberal Initiative (IL), accuses João Cotrim Figueiredo of shaping the entire early election process by the way he led it and his immediate support for Rui Rocha.
Carla Castro decided to go ahead with her candidacy two days after it was announced that the elections to the IL Executive Committee would be brought forward, that the president, João Cotrim Figueiredo, would not run for office again and that the deputy and leader Rui Rocha would run for the lead.
Speaking to Lusa, the Liberal deputy assumes this was “a difficult decision” after the “surprise” with Sunday’s events. He assures that “it was not something he had ever thought of” after concluding after reflection that “there were conditions and there was a will” to go ahead with the candidacy.
Asked about João Cotrim Figueiredo’s support for Rui Rocha, Carla Castro distanced himself from the silent leader’s decision: “I can say that as president I wouldn’t do it”.
Given that she has so far received no support from colleagues on the parliamentary bench – Bernardo Blanco, Joana Cordeiro and Patrícia Gilvaz are also with Rui Rocha – the Liberal sees this situation “in peace”.
“I have a candidacy and I will have a program, a free, independent, disaffected project that respects a legacy and with positive and constructive proposals, action-oriented and very reform-oriented, internally and externally,” he says.
For Carla Castro, however, there is a “conditioning in the form and ‘timing'” when “a person soon presents” a candidacy – as happened with Rui Rocha on the same day – recalling that it was publicly believed that his opponent learned from this decision of Cotrim Figueiredo “two weeks earlier”.
According to the liberal, the party’s still leader conditioned this entire electoral process “because it gave time to those who could prepare or think about an Executive Committee”.
Doing differently with respect for the legacy
Congresswoman Carla Castro says she is running for leadership with “respect for the legacy” but with “the will to do things differently”, and pledges to be “president of all liberals” with a “highly tolerant and humanistic matrix” .
In statements to the Lusa agency, Carla Castro promises “a respect for the legacy” the party has built over these years, but with “the will to do things differently”.
According to the liberal leader’s analysis, her candidacy does not represent a break with the current leadership of João Cotrim Figueiredo – of whose executive committee she sits – but rather “a continuity in what will continue to be liberal ideas” IL a “political, economic and social liberal party”.
Carla Castro assures that she has a “highly tolerant and humanistic liberal matrix” and is committed to “a clear program”, both from an internal and external point of view, and despite not yet having names for her direction, she already has “clear what kind of executive committee” it wants to be, an “agile executive committee, high performing, decentralizing, independent and disaffected”.
The liberal, who is committed to being the “president of all liberals”, believes that, regarding Rui Rocha, she must “offer another project within the continuity of the liberal principles and the liberal program”.
“We basically shared the same strategy motion [na convenção de 2021]but now there is another future action, there is a different dynamic and a different project, both internal and external,” he says, anticipating that during the campaign there will be a differentiation between the candidates’ proposals.
The date of the convention is for now a difference between the opponents.
When Rui Rocha announced in statements to the Lusa agency on Tuesday that he would propose to the National Council to hold the convention in January, a month later than planned so that the time is not a limitation for those who want to participate, Carla Castro states that “December is fine”.
“I don’t see the need to put it off because the problem with the dates was the conditioning and the 15 days before. If there was a problem, it was at that time,” he says.
The candidate expects a “good, constructive, respectful and uplifting campaign” and the day after the election, regardless of the outcome, wants the entire party to be united “to continue to fight for a more liberal Portugal”.
So far, the two candidates, Rui Rocha and Carla Castro, have come from the Liberal parliamentary bench and from the executive committee of João Cotrim Figueiredo.
As for the support of the parliamentary group, which has consisted of eight deputies since this year’s elections, Rui Rocha has João Cotrim Figueiredo, Bernardo Blanco, Patrícia Gilvaz and Joana Cordeiro.
Carlos Guimarães Pinto, deputy and former president of IL, announced on social media on Sunday that he will maintain “the position of distance from the internal life of the party” that he has assumed since he left the presidency and therefore would not integrate, subscribe, or support any list submitted to party organs.
The Liberals’ first president, Miguel Ferreira da Silva, expressed support for deputy Carla Castro as the party’s chairman, and the former presidential candidate supported by the liberals, Tiago Mayan Gonçalves, expressed a personal preference for Carla Castro. referring to a final position to then get acquainted with the teams and programs.
Parliamentary leader Rodrigo Saraiva has already reserved a possible support for one of the competitors “for later”.
Source: DN
