Training the Next Generation of Portuguese Policymakers

Four days. Six hours a day. Party politics left at the door. That was the premise behind Liderança em Políticas Públicas, the Nova SBE Public Policy Institute’s new program for leaders of party youth wings, the first of its kind in Portugal.

Held at Nova SBE’s Carcavelos campus from May 28th to June 2nd, the program brought together 19 young leaders from across the political spectrum to work through real policy challenges in mixed groups, with a shared analytical framework and without the usual party divisions.

José Tavares, the program’s coordinator, explains in an interview with Líder magazine that the goal was not simply to produce more technically competent politicians. It was to cultivate leaders capable of engaging constructively across party lines, people who understand that good policy requires both rigor and dialogue. The program gave participants a shared conceptual framework for thinking about complex issues like health, education, and immigration, while making space for genuine political disagreement about values and priorities.

What Tavares found in the room exceeded expectations: not the stereotype of the party activist, but a generation with serious technical arguments, a genuine willingness to engage with opposing views, and a clear impatience to be given the space to lead.
Read the full interview here.