Bernardo Alves Martinho Amaral Blanco (19 November 1995), is a Portuguese politician. He is currently a Member of the

Portuguese Parliament The Assembly of the Republic ( Portuguese: ''Assembleia da República'', ), commonly referred to as simply Parliament ( Portuguese: ''Parlamento''), is the unicameral parliament of Portugal. According to the Constitution of Portugal, the parl ...

and Vice-President of the

Liberal Initiative The Liberal Initiative ( pt, Iniciativa Liberal, , IL) is a liberal political party in Portugal currently led by João Cotrim de Figueiredo. In 2019, its debut year at the Portuguese legislative elections, the party won one seat in the Portu ...

Biography

Blanco was born in Torres Vedras in 1995. He holds a degree in management from

Catholic University of Portugal The Catholic University of Portugal ( Portuguese: ''Universidade Católica Portuguesa'', pronounced nivɨɾsiˈðad(ɨ) kɐˈtɔlikɐ puɾtuˈɣezɐ, also referred to as Católica or UCP for short, is a concordat university (non-state-run univer ...

, where he also took a Master's in political science. He has worked in the private sector, first at

OLX OLX Group is a Dutch-domiciled online marketplace headquartered in Amsterdam. The OLX consumer brand originated as OnLine eXchange in 2006. OLX Group is owned by Prosus, the international assets division of Naspers. History OLX brand and Nasp ...

as product manager, then as a member of the strategy team at

Liberty Seguros Liberty Seguros is an international subsidiary of Liberty Mutual Group, a Boston-based insurance company. Sponsorships Liberty Seguros sponsored the UCI ProTour cycling team, Liberty Seguros – Würth, but dropped the sponsorship on 25 May ...

and later at

Deloitte Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of professio ...

Political life

He joined the

(IL) and was head candidate for the

District of Leiria The District of Leiria ( pt, Distrito de Leiria ) is a district located in Centro region of Portugal, divided between the traditional provinces of Beira Litoral and Estremadura. It borders on the north with district of Coimbra, on the east with d ...

in the 2019 legislative election. In the following Portuguese legislative elections of 2022, he rejoined the lists, this time for Lisbon, and was elected MP to the

. Since his election to Parliament in 2022, Bernardo has served as Vice-President of the European Affairs Committee and as coordinator in the Committee of Environment and Energy. He also serves as Vice-President of

's parliamentary group and as coordinator in the Budget and Finance Committee. Blanco has garnered particular notoriety through his participation in the parliamentary hearings related to the nationalization process of the country's national airline,

TAP Air Portugal TAP Air Portugal is the currently state-owned flag carrier airline of Portugal, headquartered at Lisbon Airport which also serves as its hub. TAP – Transportes Aéreos Portugueses – has been a member of the Star Alliance since 2005 and opera ...

, by exposing secret meetings between ruling party members and the company and several other cases of poor management and public expenditure. Some newspapers have used the term "star-MP" to refer to Bernardo for his performance in this role. In September 2024 he announced his candidacy for the position of Vice-President of ALDE at the upcoming Congress in Estoril, stating his motivation to "reconnect with young people" and "lead them away from extremism towards liberalism". In his early years, he was vice-president of the Mises Portugal Institute and local coordinator of Students for Liberty. He is also author of the blog "O Insurgente", with his fellow IL MPs

Carlos Guimarães Pinto Carlos Manuel Guimarães Oliveira Pinto, better known as Carlos Guimarães Pinto (born in Espinho, Portugal, in 1983), is a Portuguese economist, author, university professor, think tank executive, blogger and politician. A prominent member of t ...

and

Rui Rocha Rui Nuno de Oliveira Garcia da Rocha (born 13 March 1970) is a Portuguese people, Portuguese politician who is the current President of the Liberal Initiative and a member of the Assembly of the Republic (Portugal), Assembly of the Republic. B ...

References

{{Reflist 1995 births Catholic University of Portugal alumni Liberal Initiative politicians Living people Members of the 15th Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Members of the 16th Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) People from Torres Vedras