“The only vote against populism is a vote for the Liberal Initiative,” reiterated Mariana Leitão three times during a speech in Almada, Setúbal district, rejecting “saviors or messiahs” in politics and describing populist rhetoric as “an easy shortcut, a comfortable lie, an inflammatory discourse that feeds on people’s frustration and political failures.”
“We live in dangerous times [when] some promise paradise, others promise walls, and all, at the core, want the same: power without responsibility,” she stated at a dinner rally at the Sociedade Filarmónica Incrível Almadense.
According to the leader, some say the solution is more State control, others say it’s less freedom, just as “some thrive on fear, others thrive on hatred, but all live on the same poison: populism.”
Commenting on the pro-Palestine demonstration this afternoon at Rossio in Lisbon, Mariana Leitão called it a “portrait of what happens when populism takes over politics,” where “thousands of people, driven by emotion and inflammatory speeches, occupied a station and turned it into a stage of confusion and risk.”
“On the other side, right-wing populism feeds on fear, anger, and hatred, claims to defend the people, but does so by dividing them. It promises security, but undermines it. It promises identity, but sows distrust,” she accused.
Therefore, radical parties “are two sides of the same coin, fear and resentment, and neither has real solutions for the country.”
However, Mariana Leitão argued that the “opposite of populism is not timid centrism,” but “courageous liberalism.”
The Liberal Initiative “is the only political force that does not engage in the game of fear or hatred,” because it does not promise the impossible nor aims to divide the country, added Mariana Leitão, who reaffirmed the commitment to reduce the State’s burden and lower taxes, with public money managed “with rigor, without waste, without cronyism, without favors.”
Throughout the campaign, Mariana Leitão has realized that “people are tired of seeing the same faces, the same parties, the same postponed promises.”
In Almada, the Liberal Initiative presents Carlos Alves, a manager, at the head of the list in a socialist-dominated municipality led by Inês de Medeiros. Four years ago, the Liberal Initiative received only 1,391 votes, three times less than needed to gain council representation.
