IL’s new president, Rui Rocha, promised a “very fast” transformation in the party this Sunday, saying he wants to prepare it for the “battles” he wants to fight in the country.
In the closing speech of the 7th IL Congress at the Centro de Congressos de Lisboa, the deputy says that he heard the members both during the internal campaign and during the main assembly.
“The party needs a transformation, we are going to do it, and we are going to do it very quickly. We want the party to be ready for the battles we want to be in,” he said.
Rui Rocha thanked the outgoing president and his supporter João Cotrim Figueiredo, considering him an “outstanding leader”, as well as two losing candidates, Carla Castro and José Cardos, for “the civic courage they have shown and the way they have contributed to these elections. “.
“Let there be no doubts, expressing my gratitude to Carla Castro and José Cardoso, I count on all liberals without exception. Anyone who wants to participate in the future of IL. In the future of IL, everyone is very welcome, we are all liberals, we are here to change Portugal,” he said.
Before taking the stage to close the convention, the new IL president stated that the role that Carla Castro, the losing candidate, would play in the IL, “is the one she has today and all she wants to do in terms of possible participation to the party.”
“The past ends today at IL, today we open a new page of growth, only the future of IL matters,” he said in brief statements to reporters, amid many hugs with supporters.
Rui Rocha also mentioned that the party is the only one with the vision to take Portugal to “another level”.
MP Rui Rocha was elected today as the new president of IL, and the proposal submitted by his list to the executive committee received 51.7% of the vote.
The succession of João Cotrim Figueiredo was represented by more than one list for the first time in the history of the party, with deputies and leaders Ruy Rocha and Carla Castro and national council member José Cardoso contesting the leadership at the 7th National Congress of the Party. IL that ends today in Lisbon.