With 985 registered members, the 10th National Convention of IL, taking place this Saturday in Alcobaça, Leiria district, will elect Mariana Leitão as the sole candidate for party leader, while also debating and voting on 19 sectoral motions.
Facing no opposing candidates for leadership, internal opposition within IL has focused on several sectoral motions to critique the direction of the current leadership, with particular emphasis on social rights and minority protection.
A total of five motions relate to social rights, minorities, or immigration, including one titled “Pride, Equality, and Freedom: The Liberal Commitment,” which critiques IL for providing “insufficient attention” to the defense of individual freedoms.
The signatories urge IL to reject “dehumanizing concepts,” such as “gender ideology” or the “woke movement,” and to advocate for “all minorities, including LGBTQIA+ people, ethnic, religious, immigrants, people with disabilities, and other marginalized communities.”
Another motion, titled “Against Hate, Freedom!”, calls for IL to be “as vocal in defending social and individual political liberties as it has been in defending economic freedom,” amid a growing context of hate speech and crime.
“That IL’s official communication does not remain silent in the face of hate crimes or evident threats to the democratic rule of law,” demand the signatories, two weeks after about 50 members criticized IL’s abstention from a vote condemning the attack on the theater company “A Barraca.”
Critically addressing the current leadership, another motion covers changes to nationality law imposed by the government, which IL supported generally, criticizing the extension to 10 years of residency required for nationality and advocating for the party to oppose this mandate.
Outside of these more critical motions, IL members focus on the need to broaden the party’s electoral base, with one motion titled “Openness and Welcome” suggesting that IL’s potential electorate is “much larger” than its current base, “certainly in double digits,” and emphasizes the need for “more growth.”
“We are not capturing peripheral, especially rural, areas, and even among the votes we are capturing, retention is weak,” consider these signatories.
Another motion, titled “Feminism is Liberalism” and signed by deputy Rodrigo Saraiva, argues that the party has “room to grow” among women, urging IL not to allow this electorate to be “monopolized by the left” and to start advocating for a “liberal feminism” that removes “barriers to women’s autonomy and promotes their full participation in society.”
Among current deputies, Rodrigo Saraiva is the most active, signing a total of four motions and being the first signatory of a motion calling for IL to remain an “active voice” in defending democracy and freedom internationally and demanding that the government “oppose democratic backsliding within the EU,” which they claim is occurring in Hungary, Spain, and Poland.
Among the various topics up for debate, one motion already targets the local elections of 2029, proposing a set of measures to ensure IL establishes itself as “a municipal party” and becomes “less dependent on other parties.”
Another motion asks IL to take “leadership in democratic modernization” and advocate for phased implementation of electronic voting, starting with electoral districts abroad and those registered for early voting in mobility.
