This Saturday, November 1st, Livre made official its support for the presidential candidacy of deputy Jorge Pinto, after a non-binding internal consultation in which the leader obtained 67% of the votes of activists.
According to an official party source, the decision was approved by the Free Assembly – the highest body among congresses – on Friday night, with only one abstention.
In a statement, Livre highlights that this The decision was taken “after the most popular consultation ever among members and supporters” of the party, in which more than two thirds of voters expressed support for Jorge Pinto’s candidacy, while 17.6% preferred António José Seguro.
“With this support, Livre once again reaffirms its commitment to a free, democratic and participatory left, which defends a more just, sustainable and supportive society”, reads the statement.
For the party led by Rui Tavares and Isabel Mendes Lopes, “the political area of the left must be reinforced in these presidential elections” and, “Given the impact of far-right and center-right candidacies, it is urgent to support a candidacy that enables a debate on the left”.
“We also understand that the candidacies presented so far and identified as from the left camp do not represent Livre’s political area: progressive, environmentalist and Europeanist”, maintains the party, after names such as António José Seguro, Catarina Martins or António Filipe have advanced to the left.
Livre argues that Jorge Pinto “has proven himself in representing Livre’s values and ideals” and his candidacy “will allow the political space represented by the party and all the people who have trusted him, to have a direct intervention in the presidential debate, giving voice to our vision for a progressive and humanist presidency of the republic”.
According to data released by Livre on Friday, to the question “should Livre support the candidacy of member Jorge Pinto” for President of the Republic, 67.3% (819 votes) of members responded affirmatively, 21.31% were opposed.
In these data, Livre does not include blank votes in the final calculation of percentages, in a methodology, according to the party, similar to that followed in counting the presidential results. However, including the 277 blank votes in the question about support for Jorge Pinto, the percentage of votes in favor drops from 67.3% to 54.8%.
Regarding whether the party should support a candidate from its political space, with 78.69% responding affirmatively and 21.31% negatively. When asked whether Livre should support a candidacy from another political area, 35.7% answered “yes” and 64.3% disagreed.
The party also questioned which candidacy from another political area Livre should support, with former PS leader António José Seguro being the most voted name, but 66.2% of activists chose not to nominate any other name.
Seguro received the preference of 17.63% of voters, followed by António Filipe (8.47%) and Catarina Martins (4.90%).
In none of these percentages, Livre includes blank votes, which were 138 on the question of whether the party should support someone from its political space and 259 on whether they should support a candidacy from another political area. There were also 65 invalid votes on the question of which other candidate the party should support.
Jorge Pinto, 38 years old, presents his candidacy this afternoon in Amarante, Porto, the municipality where he is from.
Graduated in Environmental Engineering, he also has a PhD in Social and Political Philosophy, with a thesis on “republicanism, ecology and post-productivism”.
He was involved in the founding of Livre, being part of the current board (Contact Group), and has been a deputy in the Assembly of the Republic since 2024.
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