The engines of the campaign for the succession of João Cotrim Figueiredo as president of the Liberal Initiative will already start after the approval of the state budget for 2023. But it will be next January, the month in which the electoral convention takes place (day 20), that the two leading candidates, Rui Rocha and Carla Castro, will face each other in the first public debate, on SIC Notícias.
The OE2023 debate was the precondition for this first phase of confirmation of the two candidates in the leadership battle, as both are deputies and Carla Castro was in charge of coordinating the OE. Now that the government’s bill has been approved, Rui Rocha and his opponent will focus more on compiling the respective lists for the party’s national organs and on the motions that will allow them to apply for the seat hitherto held by another member of the parliamentary bench, João. Cotrim Figueiredo. Although no date has yet been set for the public presentation of their ideas, as confirmed to DN by sources of the two candidacies.
Rui Rocha, who ran for office on the same day Cotrim Figueiredo announced his ineligibility (and who immediately gained the backing of the still-liberal leader), is continuing campaign initiatives as he has already been traveling around the country in contact with the militants.
At the moment he is still “alone, but the source of his candidacy admits that with the” development “of the campaign, the majority of deputies who support him will appear at his side, including João Cotrim Figueiredo.
The candidate promised to visit the party’s 79 cores and started doing so on weekends. He has already visited Braga, Portalegre and Castelo Braga and will be today in Paredes, Felgueiras, Paços de Ferreira, Trofa and Santo Tirso, having participated yesterday in the “Festa da Liberdade” celebrated in Porto on November 25 and which was also attended by the opponent.
coalitions
During these meetings with the rank and file of the fledgling party, Rui Rocha has pledged a line of continuity with João Cotrim Figueiredo’s ideas and used weighty arguments to demonstrate his commitment to the party’s cause. Like remembering that he left the position of human resources director of the Sonae group when he “risked” becoming head of list for IL in Braga.
The two candidates have also spoken to members of the National Council lists. And as the Observer reported, Rui Rocha defended at one of those meetings, namely with the T-list, a few days ago, that “the IL should negotiate a post-election agreement with the PSD”.
The candidate admitted that this coalition can take two forms: “being in government” or “parliamentary support”. When Carla Castro was asked about a governance solution the day before, according to the same online newspaper, she only chose to draw a red line to Chega, which also defined Rui Rocha.
The two candidates had already assured the DN, days after they assumed they were candidates, that they would reject a coalition with André Ventura’s party, even if a right-wing majority emerges from the parliamentary elections. Rui Rocha argues that in these circumstances the strategy is to push Chega against the wall: “Or support [no sentido de viabilizar] the PSD-IL government without any representation in it or keep the PS in power.”
Carla Castro, seen as a candidate closer to the more conservative wing of the party, framed herself and did not negotiate with the “classical liberals”. The candidate assumed that she will not submit her own list to the National Council or the Judiciary Council in order to “give more space” to the various trends at the internal level. In other words, an idea that “unity” is needed in the party so that it can grow electorally.
For now, the candidate assumes that “the successful project of the liberal initiative must now make a leap towards sustainable growth and for that sustainable growth we have a skilled team and a consistent program”.
Without the majority of her colleagues in the parliamentary group, Carla Castro nevertheless took with her the party’s first president, Miguel Ferreira da Silva, and the one who was the IL candidate for the presidential election, Tiago Mayan, becoming one of the familiar faces of liberals. In your internal campaign, you should also have these personalities with you from time to time.
Source: DN
