Rui Rocha

Rui Rocha
Rui Rocha
	Rocha in 2024
President of the Liberal Initiative
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 22 January 2023
Preceded by	João Cotrim de Figueiredo
Member of the Assembly of the Republic
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 29 March 2022
Constituency	Braga
Personal details
Born	13 March 1970 (age 54); Lobito, Portuguese Angola
Political party	Liberal Initiative (2020–present)
Children	2

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.

Biography

Born 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

IL leadership election, 2023

Ballot: 22 January 2023
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

Ballot: 10 March 2024
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]

References

^ "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

Rui Rocha at Assembly of the Republic (in Portuguese)

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[1] "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.

[dn-2] "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.

[3] 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.

[4] 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.

[5] "Rui Rocha: "Não será pela Iniciativa Liberal que não haverá solução estável de governação"". O Jogo (in Portuguese). Retrieved 12 March 2024.

[6] 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.

[7] "Iniciativa Liberal: Margem curta na vitória da continuidade". Diário de Notícias. Retrieved 10 August 2024.

[8] "Comissão Nacional de Eleições Mapa Oficial n.º 2-A/2024" (PDF). Comissão Nacional de Eleições. 23 March 2024. Retrieved 23 March 2024.

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