Liberal Initiative Explained

Country:Portugal
Liberal Initiative
Native Name:Iniciativa Liberal
Abbreviation:IL
President:Rui Rocha
Leader1 Title:Vice presidents
Leader1 Name:Bernardo Blanco
Angélique da Teresa
Ricardo Pais Oliveira
Ana Martins
Secretary General:Miguel Rangel
Foundation:13 December 2017
Headquarters:Avenida do Bessa, 158 E 4100-012 Porto
Membership Year:2023
Membership: 6,300[1]
Colours: Sky Blue
Seats1 Title:Assembly of the Republic
Seats2 Title:European Parliament
Seats3 Title:Regional
Parliaments
Seats4 Title:Local government
(Mayors)
Seats5 Title:Local government
(Parishes)
Position:Centre-right
European:Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
Flag:File:Bandeira da Iniciativa Liberal.png

The Liberal Initiative (Portuguese: Iniciativa Liberal, pronounced as /pt/, IL) is a liberal political party in Portugal. Founded in 2017, it is currently led by Rui Rocha. The party has been described as being on the political right by academics and journalists.[2] [3] [4]

It has 8 elected members of the parliament out of a total of 230 seats in the Portuguese Parliament.[5]

The party was founded in December 2017, and in October 2019, its debut year at the Portuguese legislative elections, it won one seat in the Portuguese Parliament. It had run in its first elections in May 2019 for the European Parliament and in 2020 supported its first government coalition, at regional level, after the 2020 Azorean regional election.[6]

The party espouses a libertarian-influenced economic platform, including support for a flat income tax, privatisations and liberalisation of the labour market.[7] However, it intends to preserve an equitable and universal welfare state to a certain extent.[8] [9] In other dimensions of life, the party favours views aligned with cultural and secular liberalism.[10] [11]

History

See also: Liberalism in Portugal. The Liberal Initiative was founded as an association in 2016, and was approved as a party by the Constitutional Court in 2017.[12] It was admitted to the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party, a European political party, in November 2017,[13] having run 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.[14] 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 1.3% of the votes cast.[15] At regional level, IL supported its first government coalition after the 2020 Azorean regional election.[6] In the 2021 Portuguese local elections, it won 26 seats in municipal assemblies, and none in municipal councils.[16] In the 2022 legislative election, the Liberal Initiative party increased the number of its MPs from one to eight with 5.0% of the vote.[17] Besides João Cotrim Figueiredo (already a MP at the Portuguese Parliament and incumbent party leader), IL elected seven new MPs for the party, including Carlos Guimarães Pinto (a former party leader), as MPs.

Ideology and platform

The party has been described as liberal,[7] [18] neoliberal,[19] liberal right,[20] classical-liberal,[21] libertarian,[7] [22] [23] [24] [25] and social liberal.[26] It has been described as centre-right,[27] [28] right-wing,[29] [23] [30] [31] [32] [33] with its policy base described as combining economic liberalism with more progressive stances on cultural issues.[31] [34]

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, closely following the principles of classical liberalism.[21] The party's conception of freedom encompasses both the economic and social spheres as well as the political and individual spheres,[35] and believes that if any of them are restricted, freedom ceases to exist.[36] [37] [38] [39] The party's political ideas are based on the idea of freedom as the greatest engine of human development, social harmony and economic prosperity.[36] [40] [41] [11] 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 public health insurance and private health insurance – on Ireland's corporate tax policy and on Estonia's fiscal, educational, and public administration systems,[42] [43] following classical liberal economic policies.

On 5 May 2018, the Liberal Initiative approved its political programme under the slogan "Less State, More Freedom" (Menos Estado, Mais Liberdade).[44] 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.[45]

The party, which describes itself as a liberal party of all types of liberalism,[46] rejects to be simplistically described as a blind follower of the political philosophy of libertarianism, arguing that while it defends a small government and opposes economic interventionism in principle, it also defends an effective government which guarantees the rule of law, universal healthcare, universal education, social security and a welfare state.[47] The party said that it doesn't want to dismantle the Portuguese welfare state, but instead wants to "rationalize it" based on the principles of "sustainability and equity" by redefining its fairness proposition from the point of view of both social welfare beneficiaries/non-beneficiaries and taxpayers, regardless of age, current or previous occupation and other individual factors.[9] [48]

Platform for the 2019 legislative election

Among the measures announced for the 2019 parliamentary elections were:

Party factions

The Liberal Initiative has a number of internal factions:[49] [50] [51]

Classical liberalism

This faction defends opposition to socialism through classical liberalism, calling for a low tax burden and promoting "efficient, effective and accountable government", while defending respect for individual, social, political and economic freedoms.[52]

Social liberalism

This faction adheres to the principles of social liberalism.[52] In 2024, a former candidate to the leadership of IL left it and is trying to establish a new party, the Social Liberal Party.[53]

Libertarianism

The faction espouses an outright libertarian platform with neoliberal economic and political stances, whose proposals include support for a lower flat income tax, small government, unprecedented wave of privatisations and deeper economic liberalisation of the economy, including in the labour market, able to address modernisation and overstaffing issues in the civil service, productivity gaps and competitiveness problems of the country in the context of the European Union and globalization.[54] [55]

Conservative liberalism

The faction supporting Conservative liberalism, although being liberal on economic issues, is more conservative on social issues.[52] By 25 November 2023, most of the members from this faction had left the party,[56] with two joining Chega.[57] [58]

Organisation, communication and style

The party is organised and managed in a decentralised, digitised way. It has no physical headquarters in most municipalities of the country and makes heavy use of information and communication technologies.[59] Since its foundation, the party made an impact through the acclaimed originality of its communication and marketing campaigns, in particular its eye-catching billboards.[60] [61]

Electoral results

Assembly of the Republic

Vote share in the Portuguese legislative electionsImageSize = width:200 height:200PlotArea = width:150 height:170 left:40 bottom:20AlignBars = justify

Colors = id:IL value:rgb(0.4,0.8,1) legend:IL

DateFormat = x.yPeriod = from:0 till:6TimeAxis = orientation:verticalScaleMajor = unit:year increment:2 start:0

PlotData = bar:Seats color:claret width:27 mark:(line,white) align:left fontsize:S bar:2019 color:IL from:start till:1.3 text:1.3 bar:2022 color:IL from:start till:4.9 text:4.9 bar:2024 color:IL from:start till:4.9 text:4.9

ElectionLeaderVotes%Seats+/-Government
2019Carlos Guimarães Pinto67,6811.3 (#8)New
2022João Cotrim de Figueiredo273,6874.9 (#4) 7
2024Rui Rocha319,8774.9 (#4) 0

European Parliament

ElectionLeaderVotes%Seats+/-
2019Ricardo Arroja29,1140.9 (#11)New
2024João Cotrim de Figueiredo358,8119.1 (#4)2

Regional Assemblies

RegionElectionLeaderVotes%Seats+/-Government
Azores2024Nuno Barata2,4822.2 (#5)0
Madeira2023Nuno Morna3,555 2.6 (#6)1

Local elections

Assembly of the Republic

List of presidents

Name!Portrait!Constituency!Start!End! colspan="2"
Prime minister
1Miguel Ferreira da Silva
(b. 1972)		Lisbon26 November 201713 October 2018António Costa (2015–2024)
2Carlos Guimarães Pinto
(b. 1983)		Porto13 October 20188 December 2019
3João Cotrim de Figueiredo
(b. 1961)		Lisbon8 December 201922 January 2023
4Rui Rocha
(b. 1970)		Braga22 January 2023present
Luís Montenegro (2024-present)

Notes and References

  1. Web site: PSD está sem "visão reformista" e sem "urgência de transformar o país". www.dn.pt.
  2. Book: Giorgi . Elisabetta De . Santana-Pereira . José . The Exceptional Case of Post-Bailout Portugal . 2021 . Routledge . 978-1-000-46262-3 . en . "(...) due to both the rise of two new right-wing parties, the liberal IL (Iniciativa Liberal – Liberal Initiative) (...)".
  3. Book: Catarina Santos . Botelho . Ana Teresa . Ribeiro . Portugal . https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3742104 . Albert . Richard . Landau . David E. . Faraguna . Pietro . Drugda . Simon . I-CONnect-Clough Center 2019 Global Review of Constitutional Law: Country Reports . 2020 . Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy . 3742104 . 978-1-7343197-1-2 . en . "(...) two new right-wing parties (the radical right 'CHEGA' and the liberals 'Iniciativa Liberal') entered the Portuguese parliament (...)".
  4. "The third noteworthy party on the right was IL (Iniciativa Liberal – Liberal Initiative) (...)"
  5. Web site: Sobre os grupos parlamentares . 2023-06-13 . www.parlamento.pt . pt-PT.
  6. Web site: Iniciativa Liberal anuncia acordo com PSD para viabilização de governo nos Açores. 7 November 2020. TSF Rádio Notícias.
  7. Book: Riccardo Marchi. Andre Azevedo Alves. The Right and the Far Right in the Portuguese Democracy (1974-2022). António Costa Pinto. Jorge M. Fernandes. Pedro C. Magalhães. The Oxford Handbook of Portuguese Politics. https://books.google.com/books?id=EaCTEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA113. OUP Oxford. 2022. 978-0-19-266773-1. 113.
  8. Web site: O Estado social da Iniciativa Liberal . 2023-09-25 . Jornal Expresso . pt-PT.
  9. Web site: Portugal . Rádio e Televisão de . 13 January 2022 . Iniciativa Liberal quer menos intervenção do Estado e quintuplicar representação no Parlamento . 2023-09-25 . Iniciativa Liberal quer menos intervenção do Estado e quintuplicar representação no Parlamento . pt.
  10. Web site: Sampaio . Gustavo . 22 July 2017 . Há algum partido verdadeiramente liberal em Portugal? . 2023-09-25 . O Jornal Económico - Notícias, Economia, Política, Empresas, Mercados e Opinião . pt-PT.
  11. Web site: 21 February 2023 . Portugal com rumo liberal . 2023-09-25 . Expresso . pt.
  12. Web site: Iniciativa Liberal já é um partido. 16 December 2017. ECO.
  13. Web site: ALDE welcomes new member parties ALDE Party . www.aldeparty.eu . https://web.archive.org/web/20171202052525/https://www.aldeparty.eu/news/alde-welcomes-new-member-parties . 2017-12-02.
  14. Web site: Europeias 2019 – Resultados Globais. www.eleicoes.mai.gov.pt. 2019-10-17.
  15. Web site: Legislativas 2019 – Resultados Globais. www.legislativas2019.mai.gov.pt. 2019-10-17. 27 July 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200727143954/https://www.legislativas2019.mai.gov.pt/. dead.
  16. Web site: Resultados Autárquicas 2021. Veja quem ganhou no seu município e na sua freguesia. 26 September 2021. 2021-12-29. Observador.
  17. Web site: 31 January 2022 . Portugal election: Key takeaways as Socialists cement power . 2023-07-07 . euronews . en.
  18. Web site: 2022. Portugal. 2022-02-03. www.parties-and-elections.eu.
  19. Book: Alberta Giorgi. Júlia Garraio. Teresa Toldy. Glossary. Religion, Gender, and Populism in the Mediterranean. Taylor & Francis. 2024. 9781000987515. https://books.google.com/books?id=qvnZEAAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PT136. 136.
  20. Book: Marina Costa Lobo. Portugal: EU Issue Voting in Mainstream and Challenger Parties. Marina Costa Lobo. The Impact of EU Politicisation on Voting Behaviour in Europe. Springer Nature. 2023. 9783031291876. https://books.google.com/books?id=jnC9EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA281. 281.
  21. Web site: A Construção da Identidade dos Novos Partidos em Páginas Oficiais do Facebook. 2019. Jorge Martins Rosa. Daniel Cardoso.
  22. Book: Marco Lisi. Edalina Rodrigues Sanches. Jayane dos Santos Maia. Party System Renewal or Business as Usual? Continuity and Change in Post Post-Bailout Portugal. Elisabetta De Giorgi. José Santana-Pereira. The Exceptional Case of Post-Bailout Portugal. https://books.google.com/books?id=jQxIEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA53. 2021. Routledge. 978-1-000-46262-3. 53.
  23. Book: Hanna Back. Marc Debus. Jorge M. Fernandes. The Politics of Legislative Debates. Jorge M. Fernandes. Miguel Won. Portugal: debating in a party-centred legislature. https://books.google.com/books?id=Oi5CEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA677. 2021. Oxford University Press. 978-0-19-884906-3. 677.
  24. Web site: 30 January 2022. Portugal votes in close-fought election. 2022-02-03. France 24. en.
  25. Web site: Jones. Sam. 30 January 2022. Portugal's ruling Socialist party on course to win snap general election. 2022-02-03. The Guardian. en.
  26. Web site: Vasconcelos e Sousa . João . 22 January 2023 . Sociais-liberais contra conservadores: há "luta de classes" na IL? . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20230126054658/https://www.jn.pt/nacional/sociais-liberais-contra-conservadores-ha-luta-de-classes-na-il-15702338.html . 2023-01-26 . 2024-02-29 . Jornal de Notícias . pt.
  27. News: 31 August 2019. PS mais absoluto, PSD em queda livre. Aliança e Iniciativa Liberal podem eleger. TSF.
  28. News: 7 August 2019. Voltou a guerra dos cartazes. PS diz "cumprimos", Iniciativa Liberal satiriza "com primos". Renascença.
  29. Book: Rui Alexandre Novais. A Game of Masks: The Communicative Performance of the Portuguese Populist Far-Right. Luísa Magalhães. Cândido Oliveira Martins. Masks and Human Connections: Disruptive Meanings and Cultural Challenges. Springer Nature. 2023. 9783031166730. https://books.google.com/books?id=9RGrEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA88. 88.
  30. Book: João Carvalho. Portugal: From Exception to the Epicentre. Kennet Lynggaard. Mads Dagnis Jensen. Michael Kluth. Governments' Responses to the Covid-19 Pandemic in Europe: Navigating the Perfect Storm. Springer Nature. 2022. 9783031141454. https://books.google.com/books?id=JHKfEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA69. 69.
  31. Book: Marco Lisi. André Freire. Emmanouil Tsatsanis. Enrico Borghetto. Marco Lisi. Legislative activities before and after the Great Recession. Political Representation and Citizenship in Portugal: From Crisis to Renewal. https://books.google.com/books?id=_9LoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA197. 2020. Lexington. 978-1-7936-0116-2. 197.
  32. 7 February 2021 . Catarina Santos Botelho . Ana Teresa Ribeiro . Portugal – The 2019 I·CONnect-Clough Center Global Review of Constitutional Law . 3742104.
  33. 3 February 2021. The Exceptional Case of Post-Bailout Portugal: A Comparative Outlook. South European Society and Politics. 25. 2. 127–150. 10.1080/13608746.2021.1872152. 231955442. Elisabetta De Giorgi. free.
  34. Book: Jalali. Carlos. Portugal Report. Bruneau. Thomas. Colino. Cesar. Sustainable Governance Indicators. 2020. 7.
  35. Porto Editora – Iniciativa Liberal (partido político) na Infopédia [em linha]. Porto: Porto Editora. [consult. 25 September 2023 09:36:48]. Disponível em https://www.infopedia.pt/$iniciativa-liberal-(partido-politico)
  36. Web site: Sampaio . Gustavo . 22 July 2017 . "Os liberais não querem destruir o Estado, querem um Estado forte e eficiente para atuar quando deve atuar" . 2023-09-25 . O Jornal Económico - Notícias, Economia, Política, Empresas, Mercados e Opinião . pt-PT.
  37. Web site: 28 September 2022 . Há três ou quatro anos? "Quase que era um crime falar de liberalismo" . 2023-09-25 . Notícias ao Minuto . pt.
  38. Web site: Torres . Francisco Pimentel . 26 September 2019 . Liberalismo e liberdade individual e igualdade perante a lei . 2023-09-16 . VILA NOVA . pt-PT.
  39. Web site: Pinto . Sónia . 22 December 2022 . 'A Iniciativa Liberal vai chegar ao Governo' . 25 September 2023 . SOL.
  40. Web site: Iniciativa Liberal, Livre e Chega. O que defendem os novos partidos?. 7 October 2019. Dinheiro Vivo.
  41. Web site: Iniciativa Liberal. Eles querem ser os "rebeldes responsáveis" do Parlamento. Jornal Expresso.
  42. Web site: Tiago Mayan debate com André Ventura. Mayan 2021.
  43. Web site: Iniciativa Liberal quer ex-Primeiro-Ministro da Estónia a pensar a reforma do estado português. Miguel Viterbo. Dias. Observador.
  44. Web site: "Parece que não sabem que o muro de Berlim caiu e o sistema falhou". ionline. 6 May 2018 .
  45. Web site: Iniciativa Liberal aprova programa político que defende redução de funcionários públicos. www.dn.pt.
  46. Web site: O PARTIDO DE TODOS OS LIBERAIS . Iniciativa Liberal.
  47. Web site: João Cotrim Figueiredo. 'Ninguém da Iniciativa Liberal está à procura de um tacho' . 5 December 2019 .
  48. Web site: Castro . Carla . Reforma do Sistema de Pensões – é dificil, mas tem de ser . 2023-05-02 . PÚBLICO . May 2023 . pt.
  49. Web site: seguir . Melissa Lopes-Autor marcado para . Rui Rocha eleito o novo presidente da Iniciativa Liberal . 2023-03-06 . onovo.pt . pt-PT.
  50. Web site: Mariana Lima Cunha . Inês André Figueiredo . Apupos, "carneirada", "ignorantes" e "paus mandados". O dia em que as fraturas na IL ficaram expostas . Photography by João Porfírio . 2023-03-06 . Observador . pt-PT.
  51. Web site: Lopes . Melissa . 23 June 2023 . Iniciativa Liberal: disputa no núcleo de Lisboa replica luta interna . 2024-02-19 . Jornal NOVO . pt-PT.
  52. Web site: Spranger . Paulo . 22 January 2023 . Sociais-liberais contra conservadores: há "luta de classes" na IL? . . pt-PT.
  53. Web site: Gomes . Margarida . 2024-06-04 . Dissidentes da IL querem novo partido liberal já para disputar autárquicas de 2025 . 2024-06-12 . PÚBLICO . pt.
  54. Web site: 13 June 2021 . Visão A barraquinha da Iniciativa Libertária . 2024-02-19 . Visão . pt-PT.
  55. Web site: Pimentel . José Maria . 18 October 2019 . Oito desejos para um partido liberal em Portugal . 2024-02-19 . PÚBLICO . pt.
  56. Web site: 22 November 2023 . Membros da IL anunciam saída por o partido se ter "tornado numa caricatura" . . pt-PT.
  57. Web site: 24 November 2023 . Antigo líder da ala conservadora da IL anuncia adesão ao Chega . . pt-PT.
  58. Web site: Ex-cabeça de lista da Iniciativa Liberal junta-se ao Chega . Diário de Notícias.
  59. Web site: Figueiredo . Inês André . Iniciativa Liberal, a "startup política". Não têm sedes, são dissidentes de partidos tradicionais e querem ser como Mayan . 2023-07-07 . Observador . pt-PT.
  60. Web site: 9 October 2019 . Iniciativa Liberal. Uma dúzia de outdoors mudaram a vida do 'partido do Twitter' . 2023-07-07 . www.dn.pt . pt-PT.
  61. Web site: A Criatividade nas Campanhas Políticas: O Caso do Partido Iniciativa Liberal Autónoma Academy . 2023-09-25 . Autónoma Academy Escola de Pós Graduações da UAL . pt-pt.

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