Who are the faces you chose for your team and what concern did you have in selecting the people who will join you in the leadership of the party if you win the election?
I wanted to form a highly qualified team, both with knowledge of the Liberal Initiative and with political, business and social reputation, anchored in society. We want a team that knows how to work in collaborative management, in a network, to strengthen the IL internally, but that is turned outward.
From the faces you presented and the most famous, who stands out?
There is a mix. They are well known and renowned in their area. We are talking about mayors, municipal deputies and representatives of parish councils, we have a former councilor, a former secretary of state. We are talking about one Pedro Silva Martins, from Orlando Monteiro da Silva, who is the president of the National Association of Liberal Professionals, we have several people from social and humanitarian institutions, healthcare providers from Braga, with experience in emigration. We were looking for a very versatile team, with a broad geographic representation and with complementary knowledge, who would work well as a team, and succeed in decentralizing the party, working simultaneously with the different structures to be open to society. This combination of internal and external is a great strength of this team and for the first time we have an executive committee at IL with both government and local government experience. That is distinctive in this phase of the party’s growth.
His opponent, Rui Rocha, announced that he would assign portfolios to his team to reflect on the next election acts, namely European and regional politics. Do you also have these concerns about future elections?
We carefully chose people with knowledge of international and regional politics, but it is very important to understand that the team does not start and end with the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee will work with all teams, integrating all knowledge. These two areas are very much part of the IL and we will have this representation and this concern.
What distinctive message do you have for militants in relation to Rui Rocha’s?
The focus on outer action, the ability to mark the liberal agenda, a unifying and multiplying ability.
“What is happening in the constitutional review, namely what is being thought about detentions, the danger of restrictions on freedoms and guarantees, is a disgrace.”
You still haven’t finalized the strategic motion, but what are your main ideas?
The strategy motion will be very much based on how we propose to grow the IL, how we propose this new management of the IL focused on explaining how we propose the separation of powers, decentralization and the integration of structures. It will be a distinctive and winning program.
What resistance is it important to be against the PS and the government at the moment?
It is very important that we form a very assertive opposition, both to the undoing of government policies and to the successive mistakes that are made, but also to present ourselves as an alternative. It is very important that we denounce what is happening in many areas of governance, the failure of services, the state accounts, the lack of solutions, but also explain how in the areas of health, education, accounts, dynamization of the corporate fabric liberal policies are successful. It is necessary to denounce the weakness of the PS policy and to affirm the liberal alternative.
A constitutional revision process is underway. Do you attach importance to the revision of the constitution for the development of the country?
The constitutional review is an important moment and with me the affirmation in this process will be much more pronounced. What happens in the constitutional revision, namely what people think about detentions, the danger of restricting freedoms and guarantees is an outrage and is not made known to the population. It is necessary to denounce this theme and to raise a deep-rooted opposition to it.
If he wins IL leadership in January, will he get Rui Rocha’s team and himself?
My project is one of unification, not separation.
Does that mean yes?
I mean yes.
And what is João Cotrim Figueiredo’s role in IL, as he remains on as a deputy? Aren’t you afraid it’s a shadow of the new direction?
We absolutely cannot forget that we have Carlos Guimarães Pinto in the parliamentary group, one of the most charismatic people in IL and a former president. I know very well how to live with plurality and diversity.
Source: DN
