Mariana Leitão expressed her satisfaction after campaigning for the upcoming local elections, marking her first stint as leader since her election three months ago. “I felt very comfortable, I enjoyed running this campaign, being on the street, talking to people. It was something that made me very satisfied,” she summarized.
She noted that it is “perfectly normal” for a newly elected leader not to be widely known but observed growing recognition of both herself and the Liberal Initiative among the public. “Above all, people recognize the Liberal Initiative and its ideas and identify with them,” she explained.
Leitão reaffirmed her objective of tripling the number of elected officials compared to 2021, targeting around 90. She emphasized that the primary goal is “to have councilors making a difference in people’s lives by implementing liberal policies that ultimately improve living conditions.”
Should the objective not be met, she emphasized the importance of drawing lessons from the results: “I will always draw conclusions from the results, whether positive or negative, to see where we can improve and how we can better meet people’s needs,” as this is “the main objective of politics.”
Leitão believes it is essential to draw conclusions from electoral results, regardless of their nature. At the municipal market in Guimarães, the liberal party entourage was the third to visit the space today, the last day of the campaign, with noticeable competition for promotional gifts.
A woman asked, “Don’t you have a bag? Yours are better than the others,” to which someone from the liberal caravan, with Gil Leitão running as a candidate in Guimarães, replied, “No, we only have pens left.”
At one of the stalls, Leitão was presented with a small bouquet of blue flowers. “Are they blue like our color?” she asked, to which the florist Miguel smiled and said he had painted the white flowers deliberately for Leitão.
Nearby, flower sellers from the same stand concealed gifts from the PS and the PSD/CDS coalition, which is also competing in Guimarães, to request more from the Liberal Initiative.
“Thanks for the pens, they are beautiful,” remarked one seller. “But display the leaflet and read it; it contains good proposals for Guimarães,” Leitão advised.
Faced with inquiry, a vendor initially claimed familiarity with IL candidates but, upon looking at their faces, confessed, “Actually, no.”
Earlier, Leitão heard a complaint from Maria do Céu, a green soup vendor, who remarked on the political caravans frequenting the market: “You don’t buy anything.”
Leitão responded, “I can buy a bit of cabbage to make green soup. It’s likely my favorite soup.”
Fulfilling her promise to purchase, Leitão bought some apples from a nearby vendor.
“You can eat this; it has no chemicals,” he insisted. “Give me a few apples, six is enough, especially as I’m away from home and don’t have much storage space,” she said.
