“I want with this candidacy to continue contributing to making Livre the party of concrete utopias. And there is so much we can do,” reads a message sent by Jorge Pinto to the members and supporters of the party led by Rui Tavares and Isabel Mendes Lopes, accessed by Lusa.
In the same message, Jorge Pinto seeks the support of Livre militants after reports this week that the party should back its own candidate instead of well-known left-wing figures like socialist António José Seguro, former BE coordinator Catarina Martins, or former PCP deputy António Filipe.
The leader and deputy, elected by the Porto electoral district, opines that “the world has entered a new reality whose consequences of our action (or inaction) will impact the coming decades.”
Jorge Pinto notes that the current national parliamentary composition is “marked by a right-wing majority with the extreme right” and critiques that the PSD/CDS-PP governance “has deepened issues in the central pillars of our Social State, compounded by the housing emergency and disinterest in education and science.”
“In this new world, Portugal can and must lead efforts to assert the country and the European Union as a pole of staunch defense of Human Rights, feminism, the anti-racism fight, and ecological transition. But for that, courage and will are needed,” he emphasizes in the message.
The Livre leader is candidating “with very clear and unequivocal positions regarding the country’s role in the European Union and that of the EU in an increasingly multipolar world.”
“In this uncertainty, Portugal and the EU must find their autonomous voice. The European project has been, is, and must continue to be a project of peace. Not a peace translated as the capitulation of the weakest, but always a just peace,” he argues.
For Jorge Pinto, “it is possible to think of an autonomy project that doesn’t translate into austerity.”
“On the contrary, speaking of defense at the EU or national level only makes sense if it serves to reinforce our Social State, our energy autonomy, ecological transition, science, the right to time, and respect for the dignity of all. European history shows this is possible,” he maintains in the text.
In closing his appeal, Jorge Pinto concludes: “If the present is imposed on us, the future is what we make of it.”
Jorge Pinto is 38 years old and hails from Amarante, Porto district.
With a degree in Environmental Engineering, he also holds a doctorate in Social and Political Philosophy, with a thesis on “republicanism, ecology, and post-productivism.”
He was involved in founding Livre, is part of the current leadership (Contact Group), and has been a deputy in the Assembly of the Republic since 2024.
He has authored various books, including ‘Unconditional Basic Income – A Defense of Freedom,’ published in 2019, and ‘The Freedom of Futures,’ where he develops the thesis of “how a policy based on promoting autonomy can contribute to a fairer society on a sustainable planet.”
The presidential elections are set to take place in January 2026.
