Last
updated 7 March, 2018
At the 37th Congress, a new team was elected on 18 Fenruary. On 7 March, 2018 my successor was announced here.
On 23 February, 2014 and on 25 March, 2012, the XXXV and XXXIV party
congress elected me for a third and second mandate as chair of the International Affairs Committee.
Presidential
politics once again
On 8
December I attended a book launch on Aníbal Cavaco Silva as President
of the Republic. On 28 November, I had writen a message supporting
his re-election. While PSD supports the same candidate, I do not see this as party
politics: the President of the Republic should unite and this is why I praised
the strategic cooperation with the majority government in the message I sent 5
years ago, available here.
New:
A primer on what should (and should not) be listed in the IICT President’s
diary (courtesy of the Left Bloc)
Latest
I was invited to chair the
International Affairs Committee of PSD by the leader
elected at the primaries of 28 March, effective 11 April.
Other members are Luís Brites Pereira and Miguel Trindade Rocha, both of CG&G.
Origins
After a public statement of
support to Prime Minister Cavaco Silva during the
electoral campaign of 1987, I joined the Social
Democratic Party in late 1988, before leaving for the European
Commission in Brussels. My application was endorsed by Pedro
Paes de Vasconcellos,
our neighbour in Lisbon, and the chairman of the Lisbon-C
section, who accepted it in 1989.
HOLDING ELECTED OFFICE
1991-95
I was included in the lists
of the Oporto
constituency to the Portuguese Parliament
in the Summer of 1991 and participated in the
electoral campaign in September, during my annual leave from the European
Commission.
I was elected on 5 October and became Minister of Finance on 31 October 1991.
In the XVI Congress in Oporto in November of
1992, I was elected member of the Judicial Committee (Conselho
de Jurisdição Nacional
).
After
leaving the Ministry in the cabinet reshuffle of 7 December, 1993, I took my
seat. On March 9, 1994 I was elected President of the European Affairs Commitee.
I
held my position in the Judicial Commitee until the
following XVII Congress in Lisbon in February 1995,
when Fernando Nogueira was elected Party President.
Shortly thereafter I indicated to him I would not seek re-election.
CARRYING
ON LOCAL ACTIVITIES
In
July 1997 I was asked to become Chairman of the Lisbon Study Group, a position
previously held by the candidate to Mayor of Lisbon, Joaquim
Ferreira do Amaral, MP. This is an appointment of the
Lisbon Party Chapter led by José Pacheco
Pereira, MP. It involves coordinating several sections on matters of interest
to the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, urban problems, justice, commerce and
industry, education, media, health, environment etc.
I
held the first meeting of the Lisbon Study Group in September, stressing
proximity to the citizen and the international role of Lisbon as my priorities
for study. During October and November, the Study Group co-sponsored sessions
with the Lisbon Party Chapter on the policies of the Ministry of Culture and
the privatization of RTP, the state-owned television channel.
On
election night Pacheco Pereira resigned and announced he would run again. The
elections for the Lisbon Chapter were posted for 22 January. Domingos Duarte Lima, who offered the coordination of the
Study Group to Luis Mira Amaral, won the elections.
He asked me to coordinate the promotion of international relations with similar
political forces in European and lusophone capital
cities.
At the XIX Congress in Tavira
in April 1995, I witnessed the defense by Party President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa of the possibility of an alliance between
PSD and the Popular Party, whose leader Paulo Portas
I had suited for libel in 1992. The trial, adjourned 8 times, is not set for 28
October 1998.