João Cotrim de Figueiredo, a Member of the European Parliament from the Liberal Initiative, announced his candidacy for the Presidency of Portugal on Wednesday.
“I can announce that I am indeed running for the Presidency of the Republic in the 2026 elections,” he stated in an interview with SIC and SIC Notícias.
When asked whether he was running as ‘João’ or as a candidate from the Liberal Initiative party, Cotrim de Figueiredo emphasized: “I want to make this candidacy a broader one and open it to everyone who can imagine a different Portugal from what it is today.”
“Yesterday, someone on the team remembered that famous poem by Fernando Pessoa that starts with ‘God wills, man dreams, the work is born’ and ends with ‘Portugal remains to be fulfilled’. Between the first and last verse lies the essence of why I am running,” he highlighted.
[Article in update]
