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Liberal Initiative

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Liberal Initiative
Iniciativa Liberal
AbbreviationIL
PresidentJoão Cotrim de Figueiredo
Secretary-GeneralMiguel Rangel
Founded13 December 2017 (as a party)
Membership (November 2021)4000[1]
IdeologyClassical liberalism
[2]
Political positionCentre-right[3][4] to
right-wing[5][6]
European affiliationAlliance 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] political party in Portugal currently led by João Cotrim de Figueiredo.[10] In 2019, its debut year at the Portuguese legislative elections, the party won one seat in the Portuguese Parliament.[11] The party supported its first government coalition, at regional level, after the 2020 Azorean regional election.[12] 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.[13]

Founders

Name Role Start Candidate
Miguel Ferreira da Silva Founding-Member; 1.º President of Liberal Initiative 13 December 2017
Tiago Mayan Gonçalves[14] 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.[15] The party was admitted to the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party, a European political party, in November 2017.[16] 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.[17] 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.[11] At regional level, the IL supported its first government coalition after the 2020 Azorean regional election.[12]

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.[18][19][20] 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.[21][22]

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.[23] Since its foundation, the party made an impact through the acclaimed originality of its communication and marketing campaigns, in particular its eye-catching outdoors.[24]

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).[25] 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.[26]

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 [pt] ("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[27] 3.23

Regional Assemblies

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[28]
Madeira 2019 762 0.5 (12th)
0 / 47
 12th Extra-parliamentary

Local elections

Date Votes
(Municipal Chamber) 		% Mayors[29] +/- Parish presidents[30] +/- Municipal Chamber +/- Municipal Assembly +/- Parish Assembly +/-
2021[31] 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

João Cotrim de Figueiredo, the party's first ever elected Member of the Portuguese Parliament and incumbent party leader.
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

  1. ^ https://www.jn.pt/nacional/iniciativa-liberal-marca-convencao-eletiva-para-11-e-12-de-dezembro-14296992.html
  2. ^ https://iniciativaliberal.pt/bandeiras/
  3. ^ "PS mais absoluto, PSD em queda livre. Aliança e Iniciativa Liberal podem eleger". TSF. 31 August 2019.
  4. ^ "Voltou a guerra dos cartazes. PS diz "cumprimos", Iniciativa Liberal satiriza "com primos"". Renascença. 7 August 2019.
  5. ^ Elisabetta De Giorgi, ed. (3 February 2021). "The Exceptional Case of Post-Bailout Portugal: A Comparative Outlook".
  6. ^ Catarina Santos Botelho; Ana Teresa Ribeiro, eds. (7 February 2021). "Portugal - The 2019 I·CONnect-Clough Center Global Review of Constitutional Law".
  7. ^ https://www.aldeparty.eu/alde_member_parties
  8. ^ https://www.aldeparty.eu/meet_our_leaders_joao_cotrim_figueiredo
  9. ^ https://observador.pt/programas/emissao-especial/il-nao-ganhou-estas-eleicoes-mas-ganhou-o-futuro/
  10. ^ "A Iniciativa | Iniciativa Liberal" (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 21 October 2019.
  11. ^ a b "Legislativas 2019 - Resultados Globais". www.legislativas2019.mai.gov.pt. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
  12. ^ a b "Iniciativa Liberal anuncia acordo com PSD para viabilização de governo nos Açores". TSF Rádio Notícias. 7 November 2020.
  13. ^ https://observador.pt/interativo/veja-todos-os-resultados-das-autarquicas-2/#/
  14. ^ https://iniciativaliberal.pt/ainiciativa/historia/
  15. ^ "Iniciativa Liberal já é um partido". ECO. 16 December 2017.
  16. ^ [1][dead link‍]
  17. ^ "Europeias 2019 - Resultados Globais". www.eleicoes.mai.gov.pt. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
  18. ^ Convicções, Iniciativa Liberal https://iniciativaliberal.pt/conviccoes/
  19. ^ "Iniciativa Liberal, Livre e Chega. O que defendem os novos partidos?". Dinheiro Vivo. 7 October 2019.
  20. ^ "Iniciativa Liberal. Eles querem ser os "rebeldes responsáveis" do Parlamento". Jornal Expresso.
  21. ^ "Tiago Mayan debate com André Ventura". Mayan 2021.
  22. ^ Dias, Miguel Viterbo. "Iniciativa Liberal quer ex-Primeiro-Ministro da Estónia a pensar a reforma do estado português". Observador.
  23. ^ 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/
  24. ^ "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
  25. ^ ""Parece que não sabem que o muro de Berlim caiu e o sistema falhou"". ionline.
  26. ^ "Iniciativa Liberal aprova programa político que defende redução de funcionários públicos". www.dn.pt.
  27. ^ "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.
  28. ^ "Açores. PSD aceita reduzir funcionários públicos e privatizar empresas, mas nem assim Iniciativa Liberal garante aprovar orçamentos". Jornal Expresso.
  29. ^ Eleições autárquicas 2021 – Resultados (Câmara Municipal). RTP
  30. ^ Eleições autárquicas 2021 – Resultados (Assembleia de Freguesia). RTP
  31. ^ 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
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