Rui Rocha insisted that PS was “no longer useful” and that AD only worked with IL.

IL’s “targets” from the very beginning of the legislative election campaign were the PS, which she blamed for the lack of a candidate, work and electoral program, and the AD, to which she repeated that she alone could not change the situation. a country.

Having headed the IL since January 2023, after the departure of Joao Cotrim de Figueiredo, Rui Rocha made it clear what he wants: “To seriously change and transform the country and make a final break with socialist policies.”

From the outset, the Liberal leader outlined ambitions for a 50% increase in the March 10 legislative elections and the election of 12 MPs.

Rui Rocha’s “target” was aimed daily at the PS, namely Socialist Secretary General Pedro Nuno Santos and Prime Minister António Costa, who declared that they were “two resigned faces from the past”, holding him responsible. to “the backwardness of the country, the emigration of young people, the high tax burden and the degradation of health care, education and housing.”

To justify these accusations, Rui Rocha went to a school that has no gym and has been waiting for work for more than 20 years, and to a place for which a hospital has been promised for more than two decades.

The call for a vote began from the very beginning, with the Liberal leader guaranteeing that “a vote for the PS is a losing bet” and that “a vote for the IL will not contribute directly or indirectly to a PS government,” and this message was reinforced.

Apart from the PS, the Liberal leader turned his attention to the AD and, in the first week of the election campaign, raised eyebrows by asking for a “clear majority” in the AD and IL, in the table where he set out the decisions for the country lay.

Despite this request, Rui Rocha warned that AD without IL would not be able to seriously change and transform the country as it “lacks courage and ambition.”

And subsequently he left a guarantee that he would never enter into any agreement with Chega, since it was a “completely irresponsible” political party.

Explaining the position of the liberals in terms of mutual understanding, the President of IL called on other political parties to clearly say what they will do after March 10.

Rui Rocha refused any changes to the abortion law when CDS-PP vice-president and four AD candidates in Lisbon, Paulo Nuncio, defended holding a new referendum on voluntary termination of pregnancy, and also disagreed with the relationship established by former Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho between immigration and insecurity.

The invasion of Ukraine was also a topic, with Rui Rocha defending Portugal’s support for that country and inviting Pedro Nuno Santos to say whether he intends to involve the PCP in a government decision that is “anti-European and anti-NATO” on the issue. this was repeated.

In every speech, Rui Rocha emphasized that Portugal can only grow if it lowers the IRS and therefore called on Luis Montenegro to commit to reducing this tax, but to this challenge he received no response.

In addition to cutting the IRS, one of the flags of IL, the Liberal leader also added to the main measures the issuance of a child care check to families in the amount of 480 euros, the provision of a family doctor for pregnant women, children under nine years of age. the elderly and senior citizens over the age of 65, the abolition of the BMT (municipal tax on the burdensome transfer of property) on the purchase of their own homes, the creation of a compensatory constituency and the abolition of the day of reflection.

As for the businessmen he met daily throughout the campaign, he told them that they would “even have to raise wages” to keep qualified young people in Portugal.

Days before the election, with a large number of undecided voters, the Liberal leader insisted that “the country urgently needs to reconcile with the youth” and, confident in his votes, urged parents and grandparents to vote for IL to “stop having empty chairs at the dining table.”