Jerónimo de Sousa
Jerónimo Carvalho de Sousa ( born April 13, 1947 in Santa Iria de Azóia, Loures Portugal) is a Portuguese politician. Since November 2004 he has been General Secretary of the Portuguese Communist party (PCP ). He is a member of the Portuguese Parliament ( Assembleia da República ) and was also a candidate for the Portuguese presidential elections in 1996 and 2006.
Life
Until 1974
Jerónimo de Sousa was born into a poor working class family at the time of the Salazar regime. Until the age of 14, he finished his schooling and joined - as was customary - for steel foundry MEC near Lisbon. A little later he began to be interested in anti-fascist organizations in Portugal and then also participated in events organized by the then outlawed Communist Party of Portugal ( Partido Comunista Português) part. As one of the few who could read, he read his colleagues article from the forbidden and distributed under the hand Avante! before.
Between 1969 and 1971 Jerónimo de Sousa participated in the Portuguese Colonial War, which broke out in Africa after the independence aspirations of the Portuguese colonies. He served in Guinea- Bissau, where he da Independencia da had Guiné e Cabo Verde to fight against the Marxist liberation movement Partido Africano.
After Salazar in 1969 abdicated as leader of the nation from his office and was replaced by Marcelo Caetano, there were slight openings on the part of the regime. This allowed workers who were not known for dissident work, are elected in unions. In 1973 he took part in the elections for the presidency of the Lisbon Metalworkers and winning this unexpectedly with his communist -influenced dial list. From April 1974 to 1995 was also represented on the works council of the MEC.
After 1974
Immediately after the Carnation Revolution and after the various party had re-established, applied de Sousa its membership in the Partido Comunista Português and was politically active. He competed in the first democratic elections in 1975, which should form a first constituent meeting of the deputies. After he won a mandate sparked multiple of amazement that a worker was drafted into the Portuguese parliament. Jerónimo de Sousa also participated in the following parliamentary elections and each time has been re-elected. Only from 1993 to 2002, he was not represented in the Assembleia da República.
Meanwhile, he became involved in the Partido Comunista Português reinforced (PCP ), 1979 he was first elected to the Central Committee of the PCP, he became a member of the Politburo in 1992. In 2004, he broke Carlos Carvalhas from as General Secretary of the party, since he is the leading figurehead of the Portuguese Communists.
De Sousa to be also twice for the Portuguese presidential election. However, in 1996 he gave up to support the Socialist candidate Jorge Sampaio. In the presidential election of 2006, he reached the fourth place behind Aníbal Cavaco Silva ( 50.54 percent ), Manuel Alegre ( 20.74 percent) and Mário Soares ( 14.31 percent ) to 8.64 percent. However, he won only candidate a constituency against the winner Cavaco Silva, the traditionally communist set Beja District. Him only supported his own party, the PCP, and in Portugal the Communists, closely related Portuguese countryside.