The IL leadership candidate, Rui Rocha, said this Saturday that he does not want to “tickle the system”, but rather “change Portugal”, with the aim of “breaking bipartisanship”, ensuring that the party will leave the convention united, regardless of the result. .
During the presentation of the global strategy motion that presents his list, the L, to the VII Convention of the IL, Rui Rocha defended that to end the two-party system installed in Portugal, it is necessary to “be ambitious” and for that “it is not enough to be the third political power”, which needs an expressive election result.
“I don’t want to tickle the system, I want to change Portugal. We are going to change Portugal,” he promised.
The global strategy motion set a target of 15% in the next parliamentary elections, if they take place in 2026 as planned.
The candidate assured that the Liberals “will emerge from this extraordinary convention united, whatever the outcome.”
On the electoral goals for “the political battles already ahead”, Rui Rocha referred that with regard to Madeira’s regional offices, if elected, he will do everything possible in this dispute because the goal is “to be the first elect parliamentary group” in that autonomous region, i.e. more than one deputy.
In the European, the candidate wants to get the first liberal MEP and in the regions of the Azores he aims to also get a parliamentary group where he currently has deputy Nuno Barata.
With regard to this objective of “breaking bipartisanship in Portugal”, Rui Rocha argued that, with regard to the occupation of the state apparatus in Madeira, “the PSD in Madeira is doing the same thing as the PS in the mainland”.
To change the country, the candidate’s analysis requires “a strong party” and despite his praise for the path IL has taken, he makes it clear that “there are clearly things to improve”, assuming that internal management sometimes sidelined that it was possible to focus on the country.
“We seriously want to decentralize the party,” he promised.
Rui Rocha committed, if elected, to hold “periodic quarterly meetings” with the aim of “a party with much greater proximity”.
From then on, in the speech, the candidate outlined the differences between “the land of the PS” and the “land of the Liberal Initiative”, criticizing the current situation in the country where, for example, “the youngest have to emigrate”, “there are waiting lists of two or three years in health care” and the generations fail to “ease the burden of poverty”.
“They ask me how the next day will be: we are all going to turn the country inside out, we are going to transform the country. All together for liberalism, so that liberalism reaches everyone,” he stressed.
Source: DN
