Tiago Mayan Gonçalves, candidate for president of the Liberal Initiative
Former presidential candidate supported by the Liberal Initiative, Tiago Mayan Gonçalves, withdrew his candidacy for party leadership, after it was revealed that he forged signatures as president of a parish council in the Porto district.
The former candidate for President of the Republic Tiago Mayan Gonçalveswho announced in July the leadership of the Liberal Initiative to , withdrew from candidacy.
Mayan Gonçalves should compete for party leadership with the current president, Rui Rocha at the elective convention scheduled for early 2025.
The withdrawal was confirmed this Friday by Pedro João Ermidamember of the coordination of the “Unidos pelo Liberalismo” movement, until now led by the former candidate and Belém and the main face of the opposition to the current leadership of the party.
“I confirm that Tiago Mayan left the leadership of the United for Liberalism movement and, consequently, is no longer a candidate for president of the Liberal Initiative”, the IL national advisor told Lusa.
The collapse of Tiago Mayan Gonçalves’ candidacy for the presidency of the Liberal Initiative reduces the chances of Rui Rocha’s opponentsnote or .
The news of Tiago Mayan Gonçalves’ withdrawal was reported by the online newspaper, according to which United for Liberalism is now divided between those who think it is necessary to find another candidate to compete for the IL leadership and those who consider that “the movement is very fragile and it is a mistake to insist”.
This decision comes after, this Thursday, Tiago Mayan Gonçalves took over the jury of the Portuense Associativism Support Fund, as president of the Union of Parishes of Aldoar, Foz do Douro and Nevogilde.
At issue is a minutes of the Support Fund jury meeting to the Portuense Associativism, dated September 16, which would have been elaborate and falsified by Tiago Mayan.
“These minutes were not drawn up by the jury, nor signed by them, as they are a false document with signatures affixed by another person“, read the minutes of the meeting that took place on Wednesday between the jury and the board’s executive.
According to the document, to which Lusa had access today, when confronted with the document, Mayan confirmed “that he was the one who drafted the document and placed the signatures, attributing this responsibility to himself, exempting all other members of his executive and collaborators from any blame.”
Faced with this case, the IL leader, Rui Rocharevealed this Friday that a disciplinary process against Tiago Mayan Gonçalveswhich could culminate in its expulsion from the partyrepudiating the forgery of signatures committed by the former presidential candidate.
Tiago Mayan Gonçalves had announced his candidacy for leadership of IL, arguing that the party needed “range, breadth and boldness” and assuming that did not see itself in the current leadership by Rui Rocha.
At the time, Tiago Mayan had committed to revitalize the Liberal Initiativenoting that only with an “open, active and ambitious” party would it be possible to determine policies, influence governance and transform Portugal.
“It is with a more ambitious party, which knows what it wants, that we will achieve a more liberal Portugal”, he said.
Tiago Mayan Gonçalves was the IL candidate in the presidential elections 2021, having been in sixth place with 3.22% of the votes.
The Liberal Initiative is currently led by Rui Rocha, who was elected president of the party in January 2023, with 51.7% of the votes, defeating Carla Castro, who received 44%, and José Cardoso, who obtained 4.3%.
