Rui Rocha

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]

He resigned as president of the Liberal Initiative on 31 May 2025, following the results of the 2025 Portuguese legislative elections.^[7]

• Liberalism in Portugal