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Rothbard Takes Portugal: 100 Years with Rothbard: A Personal Account

by on July 12, 2026

100 Years with Rothbard was held two weekends ago in beautiful Porto, Portugal, on Saturday, June 27, 2026, featuring and attended by a number of PFS members, including Professor Hoppe and Gülçin Imre Hoppe, Stephan Kinsella, Saifedean Ammous, Thomas Jacob, Greg and Joy Morin, and Alessandro and Domitia Fusillo. From the PFS side, Hoppe, Kinsella, and Ammous spoke at the conference, along with many other wonderful speakers (program). It was a wonderful event, attended by hundreds from Portugal and many other countries. Below is my report of the event, along with some photos of the event.

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I’ve been attending libertarian conference since 1994, all over the US and the world, and in recent decades speaking at many of them.1 I’ve also done my share of write-ups of these events.2 As PFS members know, the annual PFS meetings in Bodrum, Turkey, are like no other and are highlights of the year. And I expect our upcoming meeting this coming September to be a very special meeting, indeed, being our 20th Anniversary meeting and also the centenary year of Rothbard’s birth. But the 100 Years with Rothbard event in Porto was almost indescribably fantastic, though I will attempt to describe it anyway. It was a huge success, incredibly meaningful, fun, and well attended. It was one of the best events I’ve ever been to. I and others had such a great time. As Hannibal Smith of the A-Team says, “I love it when a plan comes together!”

Rothbard at 100 final cover May 13 2026The event was organized by Portuguese libertarian Manuel Ogando, with the help of a number of volunteers, and was sponsored by several Portuguese libertarian groups: Mises Portugal, Catalaxia, Don’t Trust Verify (bitcoin podcast), ZugaTV (libertarian podcast), and Golpe de Estado Podcast (ancap podcasters). Saif, Hans, and I all spoke as featured speakers, and Hans also gave interview to a local Portuguese businessman/podcaster as well as a Brazilian podcaster (more on this later).

As PFS members and readers know, Murray Rothbard, the key intellectual force behind the modern libertarian movement,3 died in 1995 and would have turned 100 years old on March 2 of this year. Hans Hoppe was his close friend and associated for the last 10 years of his life, and for this reason he and I assembled and produced a Gedenkschrift in his honor and on the occasion of his centenary, Rothbard at 100: A Tribute and Assessment, co-published by my Papinian Press and Saifedean Ammous’s The Saif House. We worked hard to have it ready for digital publication on his birthday, March 20, 2026. Hans plans to have a special panel discussion of Rothbard at the PFS meeting later this year, and we have been celebrating and featuring his work on the PFS website.

Earlier this year Manuel, whom I had met at PFS last September in Bodrum, the first time he attended, mentioned to me that he was translating my book Legal Foundations of a Free Society into European Portuguese4 and was planning on having a Rothbard-centered event in Portugal sometime in June where the translation of my book would be presented. After some discussion, Hans, Saifedean and I all agreed to come and speak. Meanwhile, Saifedean agreed to publish the print version of Rothbard at 100: A Tribute and Assessment and we worked together to have the deluxe cloth-bound hardcover finished and ready for presentation at the Porto event. And Fernando Chiocca worked to have 100 Anos de Rothbard: Uma Homenagem e Apreciação, a Brazilian Portuguese translation of Rothbard at 100: A Tribute and Assessment published in time for the Porto event as well.5 Thus the Porto event saw three books presented: our Rothbard Gedenkschrift, its Brazilian Portuguese translation, and the European Portuguese translation of my LFFS. Hans and I and others did a lot of book signing after our talks on Saturday.

Manuel had originally intended a smaller, local event, but we ended up needing a larger space for the almost 400 attendees, which were about 80% Portuguese but many others from Spain, Europe, and elsewhere. The first venue booked ended up canceling the booking, due to local political concerns over our libertarian views. A second venue was booked. They also backed out. Finally, a third venue was booked, which thankfully did not end up backing out.

Google translate live translation modeAnd when so many non-Portuguese were coming and speaking, Manuel arranged to have simultaneous translation done via captions for the non-English speakers. Greg showed me that the the Google Translate app has Live Translation modes for listening, and for real-time conversations. I used the former to listen to speeches in Spanish or Portuguese in real time and was amazed at how well it worked; later I used it for some conversations.

The speeches were recorded and will be released later; we will post them on the PFS Blog when they are available. For now, see:

Manuel Ogando, our tireless organizer - Rothbard Porto

Manuel Ogando, our tireless organizer – Rothbard Porto

Also, there was a very special gift given to me and and Hans Hoppe by the event’s organizer, PFS member Manuel Ogando: an original engraving of Rothbard, by Manuel’s sister, the artist Madalena Ogando (Instagram @mmadalena.art), based on images from a Rothbard video (see below). Two unique prints were prepared: no. 1 of 2 presented to Professor Hoppe, and no. 2 of 2 given to me. I have already hung it in my office. See video of its creation below. N.b.: “Parabéns,” “Congratulations,” is used for Happy Birthday in Portugal.6

Manuel Ogando, Rothbard Porto organizer

Manuel Ogando, Rothbard Porto organizer

A tribute video for Rothbard was displayed at the event, just before Hoppe’s final keynote speech, with Hoppe’s voiceover commentary, and the 100th Birthday cake for Rothbard was also presented at the event, with everyone singing happy birthday.7

Text from Hans-Hermann Hoppe, “Murray Rothbard, R.I.P.,” The Free Market 13, no. 3 (March 1995); see also Hoppe’s similar memorial in Murray N. Rothbard: In Memoriam (Auburn, Ala.: Mises Institute, 1995).

Thumbnail for Youtube Video, Hoppe Voiceover for Rothbard Tribute, “100 Years with Rothbard” (Porto, Portugal, June 27, 2026).

Rothbard Porto - Kinsella relaxing

Rothbard Porto – Kinsella relaxing

Manuel et al. had so many nice touches, including Rothbard dark chocolates and FIFA/Panini style stickers of some of the speakers and other Austrian luminaries.

Rothbard at porto fifa stickers panini

Rothbard at porto fifa stickers panini

Rothbard at porto chocolates

Rothbard at porto chocolates

❧

Because I and some of my friends, like the Morins, had never been to Portugal, we made a nice trip out of it: we and the Hoppe’s met for a few days in Lisbon for some lovely sightseeing, and then traveled to Porto on the Friday before the event. On the Sunday after event, a group of us toured a winery in the Douro region, and then more sightseeing on Monday after event in Porto.

For another good report of the event, see BEEGARC, Rothbard 100, in Porto: A Misunderstood Genius in a Room of People Who Understood (June 28, 2026), who concluded his report:

One final word, and it’s the most deserved of all.

Stephan Kinsella and Hans-Hermann Hoppe said it was one of the best libertarian events they had ever attended. These were not polite remarks for the occasion — these people don’t waste time on those. The organisation of Rothbard 100 was a collective effort, carried out overwhelmingly by volunteers, people who offered their time without compensation, because they believe in something. But it was one person’s idea: Manuel Ogando. He decided to do what had never been done before. The best libertarian event ever held in Portugal, in the Iberian Peninsula, in Europe, and probably in the world. That’s not an exaggeration. It’s what was said by people who know what they’re talking about.

Rothbard’s ideas came alive yesterday, because they were handed to a new generation — one that already senses the world isn’t quite as they were told, that some things don’t add up, that the official answers aren’t enough. Many of those answers are in the work of Murray Rothbard, and yesterday that generation found them in a room in Porto.

Manuel Ogando earned his place in the history of the libertarian movement by conceiving and executing this event. Everyone who loves liberty is left with a debt of gratitude — to the speakers, to the organisation, and to the man who had the audacity to want to do the best.

A heartfelt and enormous thank you to all.

I have heard nothing but great comments on Twitter and elsewhere about the event from the enthusiastic attendees, and Manuel Ogando has relayed to me that he has been inundated with thanks and praise.

What a great trip. It was so great to meet and interact with old and new friends in this Portuguese-centered but international gathering of lovers of liberty and Rothbard and his ideas.

Below I will append some photos from and commentary on the event.

Photo Gallery

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Gallery

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  1. This year alone I will have spoken in Portugal, Honduras, Turkey, and Finland. See my media/events page; various biographical accounts. My first conference was an Objectivist conference in 1988, Meeting of the Minds in Dallas, featuring David Kelley and others, but I really started attending such events in October 1994 at the John Randolph Club meeting, where I met Hoppe and Rothbard. And then I started attending Mises Institute events such as the Austrian Scholars Conference in 1995, and others. See Kinsella, “Mises, Rothbard, Hoppe: An Indispensable Framework,” in Rothbard at 100: A Tribute and Assessment; Kinsella, “My Years with the Mises Institute,” Property and Freedom Journal (May 2, 2026). [↩]
  2. See, e.g., PFS Press page, including Kinsella, Memories of the First Property and Freedom Society Meeting, May 2026 (May 10, 2026); Kinsella, Property, Freedom, and Defiance: PFS 2021 in a Covid World (Oct. 1, 2021); Kinsella, “Bodrum Days and Nights: The Fifth Annual Meeting of the Property and Freedom Society: A Partial Report,” Stephan Kinsella, The Libertarian Standard (June 16, 2010). [↩]
  3. Which is about 60–70 years old, by my estimation. See Stephan Kinsella, “Libertarianism After Fifty Years: What Have We Learned?“, in Legal Foundations of a Free Society (Houston, Texas: Papinian Press, 2023) [LFFS]. [↩]
  4.  Fundamentos Legais de uma Sociedade Livre, European Portuguese translation of Legal Foundations of a Free Society. [↩]
  5. PFS, Portuguese Translation of Rothbard at 100: A Tribute and Assessment Published. [↩]
  6. See Kinsella, Rothbard Engraving from “100 Years with Rothbard,” Portugal (July 2, 2026). [↩]
  7. Now public domain and liberated from the clutches of copyright after a pointless and expensive court battle. Happy Birthday to You (Wikipedia); “Happy Birthday” copyright defense: Those “words” and “text” are ours; Jeff Tucker sings Happy Birthday to Me.  [↩]

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