After approving the congress regulations in an exclusively 'online' format on Friday night, the members and supporters of Livre are meeting today at the Costa de Caparica municipal pavilion, in the municipality of Almada, district of Setúbal.

According to an official source from the party, around 200 congressmen are registered, who will participate locally or remotely.

At this congress, Livre will approve the program for the European elections on June 9th and elect the new national bodies for the 2024-2026 term.

According to the program, the great meeting will start with speeches by representatives of the outgoing national bodies, followed by the presentation of the three candidate lists for the Contact Group (board) and the two for the Jurisdictional Council.

In the afternoon, the party's provisional program for the European elections will be presented, since Livre members and supporters can submit amendments to this document, which will be closed on Sunday.

The debate on the 25 specific motions is scheduled for the end of the day, with topics ranging from improving the open primary process, more public housing policies or a national referendum on regionalization in 2026.

The deputy and founder of Livre Rui Tavares is expected to speak to the congressmen around 9:00 pm, according to an official source from the party.

This congress takes place after Livre achieved its best electoral result ever in the March legislative elections - winning a parliamentary group for the first time, composed of Rui Tavares, Isabel Mendes Lopes, Jorge Pinto and Paulo Muacho -- growth that the party wants to consolidate, ten years after its foundation.

The list of candidates for the European elections will be headed by leader Francisco Paupério, after a process of open primaries marked by controversy and internal disagreements.

Paupério won the primaries with a significant number of single votes from non-party members, which led the Electoral Commission to raise doubts about a possible "distortion of results" in the first round and to propose that only members vote in the second round -- something that ended up not happening.

Improving the primaries will certainly be one of the themes that will mark the great meeting, being a concern expressed by the three candidate lists for the Contact Group (board), Livre's executive body. Concrete changes, however, will have to be made at a possible statutory congress.

There are three candidate lists for the board: list 'A', headed by Livre's parliamentary leader, Isabel Mendes Lopes, deputies Rui Tavares and Jorge Pinto and 'number two' in the European elections, Filipa Pinto; list 'B', headed by leader Natércia Lopes, followed by Rodrigo Brito and Patrícia Robalo; and list 'C', headed by João Manso and in second place Irene Gomes, among others.

The Contact Group is composed of 15 members, elected according to the Hondt method, so it is certain that it will have members from various internal currents.

The new Livre Assembly will also be elected, the highest body between congresses, which has 95 individual applications to fill 50 seats.

As for the Jurisdictional Council, composed of 11 seats, two lists are competing: list 'A', headed by deputy Paulo Muacho and 'B', by member Rui Matias.

Read Also: Livre. Housing and regionalization among the 25 specific motions (Portuguese version)