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)

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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

).
 

Click here for a light moment in the 1992 Congress in Oporto

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.
 

Click here for the possible scope of the 
Gabinete Internacional de Lisboa (GIL)

 
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.
 

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