Liberal Initiative
Liberal Initiative Iniciativa Liberal | |
---|---|
Abbreviation | IL |
President | João Cotrim de Figueiredo |
Secretary-General | Miguel Rangel |
Founded | 13 December 2017 (as a party) |
Membership (November 2021) | 4000[1] |
Ideology | Classical liberalism [2] |
Political position | Centre-right[3][4] to right-wing[5][6] |
European affiliation | Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe[7][8] |
Colours | Sky blue |
Assembly of the Republic | 1 / 230 |
European Parliament | 0 / 21 |
Regional Parliaments | 1 / 104 |
Local government (Mayors) | 0 / 308 |
Local government (Parishes) | 1 / 3,091 |
Website | |
iniciativaliberal.pt | |
The Liberal Initiative (Template:Lang-pt, IL) is a classic-liberal[9] and right-libertarian[10] political party in Portugal currently led by João Cotrim de Figueiredo.[11] In 2019, its debut year at the Portuguese legislative elections, the party won one seat in the Portuguese Parliament.[12] The party supported its first government coalition, at regional level, after the 2020 Azorean regional election.[13] IL is, similary to most alike European liberal parties, closest to the right-wing and centre-right British notion of liberalism, following a reverse notion of that same base-ideology of left-wing liberalism in North America. The party won 30 seats in municipal councils (Câmara municipal) in its first ever local elections.[14]
Founders
Name | Role | Start | Candidate |
---|---|---|---|
Miguel Ferreira da Silva | Founding-Member; 1.º President of Liberal Initiative | 13 December 2017 | |
Tiago Mayan Gonçalves[15] | Founding-Member; President of the Jurisdiction Council | 13 December 2017 | 2021 Candidate for President of Portugal |
Bruno Horta Soares | Founding-Member | 13 December 2017 | 2021 Candidate for Mayor of Lisbon |
Rodrigo Dias Saraiva | Founding-Member | 13 December 2017 | |
Alexandre Krauss | Founding-Member | 13 December 2017 | |
Nuno Santos Fernandes | Founding-Member | 13 December 2017 | |
João Pedro Gomes | Founding-Member | 13 December 2017 | 2021 Candidate for Belém Parish Board |
João Cascão | Founding-Member | 13 December 2017 | 2021 Candidate for Oeiras Municipal Assembly |
History
The party was created as an association in 2016, and was approved as a party by the Constitutional Court in 2017.[16] The party was admitted to the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party, a European political party, in November 2017.[17] It ran for election for the first time in the 2019 European Parliament election in Portugal, garnering 0.9% of the votes, and failing to win any seats in the European Parliament.[18] In the 2019 legislative election, the party won a single seat in the Portuguese Parliament through the electoral district of Lisbon, earning 67,681 votes in total, equivalent to 1.29% of the votes cast.[12] At regional level, the IL supported its first government coalition after the 2020 Azorean regional election.[13]
Ideology
According to its own official statements about this topic, the Liberal Initiative was founded with the Oxford Manifesto in mind and believes in individual freedom, by which all individuals have fundamental rights, including the possibility of having a life of their own, owning property or choosing how they want to live in their community. The party's conception of freedom encompasses both the economic and social spheres as well as the political sphere and understands that if any of them are restricted, freedom ceases to exist. They defend the ideals that achieve free people, free societies, free markets and free citizens. The party's political ideas are based on the idea of freedom as the greatest engine of human development, social harmony and economic prosperity.[19][20][21] The party's leaders and founders have ascertained that they envisage Portugal as a country that will model itself on Germany's multi-payer health care system – which is paid for by a combination of state-owned health insurance and private health insurance –, on Ireland's tax policy and on Estonia's public administration system.[22][23]
Organization, communication and style
The party is organized and managed in a decentralized, digitized way. It has no physical headquarters in most municipalities of the country and makes heavy use of information and communication technologies.[24] Since its foundation, the party made an impact through the acclaimed originality of its communication and marketing campaigns, in particular its eye-catching outdoors.[25]
Program and policies
On 5 May 2018, the Liberal Initiative approved its political program under the slogan "Less State, More Freedom" (Menos Estado, Mais Liberdade).[26] The party proposes the reduction of the number of civil servants and the extension of their health system to all Portuguese citizens, as well as extending the freedom for parents to choose their children's school without it necessarily being linked to their address.[27]
Program for the 2019 legislative election
Among the measures announced for the 2019 parliamentary elections were:
- Introducing a flat income tax rate of 15%.
- Extending coverage by the ADSE ("Instituto de Proteção e Assistência na Doença") to all Portuguese citizens. This body is in charge of health care, and works like a health insurance, for the Portuguese civil servants only.
- Providing freedom of choice of school in both the state-owned and privately-owned systems, through a school-voucher system.
- Granting more freedom for universities to define admission criteria, and following the American and British models for universities by adopting a student-loan funding system.
Electoral results
Assembly of the Republic
Election | Assembly of the Republic | Government | Size | Leader | Notes | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Votes | % | ±pp | Seats won | +/− | |||||
2019 | 67,681 | 1.3% | 1 / 230
|
Opposition | 8th | Carlos Guimarães Pinto |
European Parliament
Election | European Parliament | Size | Candidate | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Votes | % | ±pp | Seats won | +/ | |||
2019 | 29,120 | 0.9% | 0 / 21
|
11th | Ricardo Arroja |
Presidential elections
Date | Candidate | First Round | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Cl. | Votes | % | ||
2021 | Tiago Mayan Gonçalves | 6th | 134,991[28] | 3.23 |
Regional Assemblies
Region | Last Election |
No. of overall votes |
% of overall vote |
Seats | Government | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No. | ± | Position | |||||
Azores | 2020 | 2,012 | 1.9 (7th) | 1 / 57
|
7th | Opposition; negotiated the approval of the Government's program[29] | |
Madeira | 2019 | 762 | 0.5 (12th) | 0 / 47
|
12th | Extra-parliamentary |
Local elections
Date | Votes (Municipal Chamber) |
% | Mayors[30] | +/- | Parish presidents[31] | +/- | Municipal Chamber | +/- | Municipal Assembly | +/- | Parish Assembly | +/- |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2021[32] | 64,849 | 1,30% | 0 / 308
|
New | 0 / 3,091
|
New | 0 / 2,064
|
New | 26 / 6,448
|
New | 45 / 26,797
|
New |
List of leaders
Name | Start | End | |
---|---|---|---|
1st | Miguel Ferreira da Silva | 13 December 2017 | 13 October 2018 |
2nd | Carlos Guimarães Pinto | 13 October 2018 | 8 December 2019 |
3rd | João Cotrim de Figueiredo | 8 December 2019 | Present |
See also
References
- ^ https://www.jn.pt/nacional/iniciativa-liberal-marca-convencao-eletiva-para-11-e-12-de-dezembro-14296992.html
- ^ https://iniciativaliberal.pt/bandeiras/
- ^ "PS mais absoluto, PSD em queda livre. Aliança e Iniciativa Liberal podem eleger". TSF. 31 August 2019.
- ^ "Voltou a guerra dos cartazes. PS diz "cumprimos", Iniciativa Liberal satiriza "com primos"". Renascença. 7 August 2019.
- ^ Elisabetta De Giorgi, ed. (3 February 2021). "The Exceptional Case of Post-Bailout Portugal: A Comparative Outlook".
- ^ Catarina Santos Botelho; Ana Teresa Ribeiro, eds. (7 February 2021). "Portugal - The 2019 I·CONnect-Clough Center Global Review of Constitutional Law".
- ^ https://www.aldeparty.eu/alde_member_parties
- ^ https://www.aldeparty.eu/meet_our_leaders_joao_cotrim_figueiredo
- ^ https://observador.pt/programas/emissao-especial/il-nao-ganhou-estas-eleicoes-mas-ganhou-o-futuro/
- ^ Jorge Martins Rosa; Daniel Cardoso, eds. (2019). "A Construção da Identidade dos Novos Partidos em Páginas Oficiais do Facebook".
- ^ "A Iniciativa | Iniciativa Liberal" (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 21 October 2019.
- ^ a b "Legislativas 2019 - Resultados Globais". www.legislativas2019.mai.gov.pt. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
- ^ a b "Iniciativa Liberal anuncia acordo com PSD para viabilização de governo nos Açores". TSF Rádio Notícias. 7 November 2020.
- ^ https://observador.pt/interativo/veja-todos-os-resultados-das-autarquicas-2/#/
- ^ https://iniciativaliberal.pt/ainiciativa/historia/
- ^ "Iniciativa Liberal já é um partido". ECO. 16 December 2017.
- ^ [1][dead link ]
- ^ "Europeias 2019 - Resultados Globais". www.eleicoes.mai.gov.pt. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
- ^ Convicções, Iniciativa Liberal https://iniciativaliberal.pt/conviccoes/
- ^ "Iniciativa Liberal, Livre e Chega. O que defendem os novos partidos?". Dinheiro Vivo. 7 October 2019.
- ^ "Iniciativa Liberal. Eles querem ser os "rebeldes responsáveis" do Parlamento". Jornal Expresso.
- ^ "Tiago Mayan debate com André Ventura". Mayan 2021.
- ^ Dias, Miguel Viterbo. "Iniciativa Liberal quer ex-Primeiro-Ministro da Estónia a pensar a reforma do estado português". Observador.
- ^ Iniciativa Liberal, a "startup política". Não têm sedes, são dissidentes de partidos tradicionais e querem ser como Mayan, Observador https://observador.pt/especiais/iniciativa-liberal-a-startup-politica-nao-tem-sedes-sao-dissidentes-de-partidos-tradicionais-e-querem-ser-como-mayan/
- ^ "Iniciativa Liberal. Uma dúzia de outdoors mudaram a vida do 'partido do Twitter' O partido começou por ser conhecido como do "Twitter", mas domingo chegou ao parlamento. Sem rostos conhecidos ou grandes recursos como conseguiu isto? Muita criatividade e uma...", Diário de Notícias https://www.dn.pt/poder/iniciativa-liberal-uma-duzia-de-outdoors-mudaram-a-vida-do-partido-do-twitter-11387496.html
- ^ ""Parece que não sabem que o muro de Berlim caiu e o sistema falhou"". ionline.
- ^ "Iniciativa Liberal aprova programa político que defende redução de funcionários públicos". www.dn.pt.
- ^ "Mapa oficial com os resultados da eleição para o Presidente da República realizada em 24 de janeiro de 2021" [Official map with the results of the election for the President of the Republic held on January 24, 2021]. Comissão Nacional de Eleições (in Portuguese). 9 February 2021.
- ^ "Açores. PSD aceita reduzir funcionários públicos e privatizar empresas, mas nem assim Iniciativa Liberal garante aprovar orçamentos". Jornal Expresso.
- ^ Eleições autárquicas 2021 – Resultados (Câmara Municipal). RTP
- ^ Eleições autárquicas 2021 – Resultados (Assembleia de Freguesia). RTP
- ^ Território Nacional. Portugal Continental e Regiões Autónomas. www.autarquicas2021.mai.gov.pt (in Portuguese). Ministério Administração Interna. Retrieved September 27, 2021. https://www.autarquicas2021.mai.gov.pt/resultados/territorio-nacional?election=CM
External links
- Media related to Iniciativa Liberal at Wikimedia Commons
- Official website