Rui Nuno de Oliveira Garcia da Rocha (born 13 March 1970) is a Portuguese politician who is the current President of the Liberal Initiative and a member of the Assembly of the Republic.
Rui Rocha | |
|---|---|
 Rocha in 2024 | |
| President of the Liberal Initiative | |
| Assumed office 22 January 2023 | |
| Preceded by | João Cotrim de Figueiredo |
| Member of the Assembly of the Republic | |
| Assumed office 29 March 2022 | |
| Constituency | Braga |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 13 March 1970 Lobito, Portuguese Angola |
| Political party | Liberal Initiative (2020–present) |
| Children | 2 |
Biography
editBorn in Lobito, Portuguese Angola, Rocha moved to Braga as a child.[1] He is married and has two children. He graduated with a law degree from the Catholic University of Portugal in Porto and was a guest assistant on law courses at the Moderna University. He works as a lawyer, legal consultant and director of human resources, in the fields of construction, motoring, finance and specialised retail.[2]
Rocha joined the Liberal Initiative in August 2020. He worked on Tiago Mayan Gonçalves's campaign in the 2021 Portuguese presidential election. In the 2022 Portuguese legislative election, he was the party's lead candidate in Braga and was elected.[2]
Endorsed by outgoing leader João Cotrim de Figueiredo, Rocha was voted party leader on 22 January 2023. He received 51.7% of the votes from 2,300 party members.[3] He set the target of reaching 15% of the votes in the following Portuguese legislative election and declared that he would only work with the Social Democratic Party if that party would not ally with Chega.[2]
In the 2024 legislative election, called after António Costa's resignation as Prime Minister, the Liberal Initiative kept the 8 deputies it had before, and had only a slight increase in votes, failing the objective he had set after the election was called of electing at least 12 deputies.[4] Rui Rocha showed himself available for negotiations with the Social Democratic Party,[5] but the two parties ended up not forming any agreement to join the government or for any parliamentary support.[6]
Electoral history
editIL leadership election, 2023
edit| Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rui Rocha | 888 | 51.7 | |
| Carla Castro | 757 | 44.0 | |
| José Cardoso | 74 | 4.3 | |
| Blank/Invalid ballots | 9 | – | |
| Turnout | 1,728 | 74.26 | |
| Source: IL Convention[7] | |||
Legislative election, 2024
edit| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | Seats | +/− | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AD | Luís Montenegro | 1,867,442 | 28.8 | 80 | +3 | |
| PS | Pedro Nuno Santos | 1,812,443 | 28.0 | 78 | –42 | |
| Chega | André Ventura | 1,169,781 | 18.1 | 50 | +38 | |
| IL | Rui Rocha | 319,877 | 4.9 | 8 | ±0 | |
| BE | Mariana Mortágua | 282,314 | 4.4 | 5 | ±0 | |
| CDU | Paulo Raimundo | 205,551 | 3.2 | 4 | –2 | |
| Livre | Rui Tavares | 204,875 | 3.2 | 4 | +3 | |
| PAN | Inês Sousa Real | 126,125 | 2.0 | 1 | ±0 | |
| ADN | Bruno Fialho | 102,134 | 1.6 | 0 | ±0 | |
| Other parties | 104,167 | 1.6 | 0 | ±0 | ||
| Blank/Invalid ballots | 282,243 | 4.4 | – | – | ||
| Turnout | 6,476,952 | 59.90 | 230 | ±0 | ||
| Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições[8] | ||||||
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Rui Rocha é o novo presidente da Iniciativa Liberal" [Rui Rocha is the new president of the Liberal Initiative] (in Portuguese). ZAP. 22 January 2023. Retrieved 27 January 2023.
- ^ a b c "Quem é Rui Rocha, líder da IL pouco mais de dois anos após ter entrado no partido" [Who is Rui Rocha, leader of the IL little more than two years after entering the party]. Diário de Notícias (in Portuguese). 22 January 2023. Retrieved 27 January 2023.
- ^ Ribeiro Pinto, Paulo (22 January 2023). "Rui Rocha é o novo presidente da Iniciativa Liberal" [Rui Rocha is the new president of the Liberal Initiative]. Jornal de Negócios (in Portuguese). Retrieved 27 January 2023.
- ^ Lusa, NOVO com (11 March 2024). "IL mantém os atuais oito deputados e elege pela primeira vez em Aveiro". Jornal NOVO (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 12 March 2024.
- ^ "Rui Rocha: "Não será pela Iniciativa Liberal que não haverá solução estável de governação"". O Jogo (in Portuguese). Retrieved 12 March 2024.
- ^ ECO (26 March 2024). "Iniciativa Liberal fora do Governo de Montenegro. Partidos "não avançarão para entendimentos alargados"". ECO (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 22 May 2024.
- ^ "Iniciativa Liberal: Margem curta na vitória da continuidade". Diário de Notícias. Retrieved 10 August 2024.
- ^ "Comissão Nacional de Eleições Mapa Oficial n.º 2-A/2024" (PDF). Comissão Nacional de Eleições. 23 March 2024. Retrieved 23 March 2024.
External links
edit- Rui Rocha at Assembly of the Republic (in Portuguese)
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