José Ribeiro e Castro

José Duarte de Almeida Ribeiro e Castro ( born December 24, 1953 in Lisbon, Portugal) is a Portuguese lawyer and politician of the right-wing CDS -PP. He led the party from April 2005 to April 2007.

Life

Training

José Ribeiro e Castro was born in Lisbon, his family which originates from both Odemira in the Alentejo as well as the Portuguese Atlantic island of Madeira. He studied law at the University of Lisbon, he graduated in 1975 with the usual Lizenziatur ( licenciatura ) from. He then worked as a legal consultant and as a lawyer. Since 1999 he is member of the Association of Portuguese Lawyers ( Ordem dos Advogados ).

Early in her career at CDS

In July 1974 he joined the newly formed Partido do Centro Democrático Social (now Centro Democrático e Social - Partido Popular) at which occurred Christian- democratic and centrist then. During this time he also learned the later party sizes as Diogo Freitas do Amaral and Adelino Amaro da Costa know. In August of the same year he founded with other young members of the CDS a new youth organization of the party, the Juventude centrista (JC, " Centrist Youth" ). Up to the first CDS Congress in 1976, he headed the youth organization. At the party congress, the party delegates elected him to the National Commission of the CDS, subsequently, the party secretariat. During this time he worked among other things as a party spokesman.

Later Ribeiro e Castro worked in party-affiliated organizations, in 1979 he founded the Federação dos Trabalhadores Democrata - Cristãos ( FTDC, " Association of Christian Democratic Workers ") and the Confederação Nacional das Organizações de Família ( CNAF, "National Federation of Family Organisations "). Also in 1979, he held the position of Secretary General of the CDS near Instituto Democracia e Liberdade (IDL, today Instituto Amaro da Costa ) holds; 1983 to 1985 he was Secretary General of the Instituto Fontes Pereira de Melo ( IFPM ).

State Secretary in the cabinets of AD

Age of 22, at the first regular parliamentary elections in 1976, he was first elected in constituency Braga in the Portuguese Parliament. Also in the next elections (1979, 1980) he was re-elected, this time on the electoral lists Aliança Democrática (AD), the coalition of PSD, CDS and PPM, and once each in the voting district of Aveiro, and once in the voting district of Lisbon. Since the AD emerged victorious from the elections, Ribeiro e Castro took over an office in the government. First, in the Cabinet as Secretary of State Sá Carneiro Deputy Prime Minister Diogo Freitas do Amaral, the same position in the third cabinet under Pinto Balsemão. In this context, he was also responsible for the affairs of the Portuguese colony of Macau ( Gabinete de Macau ).

From 1982 to 1985, for the first time represented in a community meeting, first in the council of Odemira in Alentejo. He repeated this in 2001 in Sintra, where he was from 2002 to 2006 and mayor of Lisbon suburb Sintra under this mandate.

1985 or 1986, he led the campaign of Diogo Freitas do Amaral for the presidential election, the campaign was the slogan P'rá Frente Portugal ( " Forward, Portugal "). In the runoff, however, PS candidate Mário Soares decided the election with 50.7 percent, well for itself.

From 1986 to 1991, during the second cabinet under Prime Minister Cavaco Silva, he advised the Education Minister Roberto Carneiro. In this context, he advised Carneiro in the drafting of the first sports fundamental right in Portugal ( Direito -Law No 1/90 ). Also in other aspects of sports law itself Ribeiro e Castro dedicated intensive. Beraterisch he was also active from 1984 to 1985 at the Instituto Nacional de Administração ( "National Administration Institute " ) from 1988 to 1990 Sozialaktionsrat the Ministry of Social Affairs, from 1993 to 1994 in the anti-drug project Projecto Vida. In 1991, he consulted a lawyer, the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection.

Changes in the media sector

In addition to his political and factional career was also active in the Portuguese media landscape. So was assessor in the Board of Directors of the newspaper O Primeiro de Janeiro ( 1984-86 ), member of the publishing board of the journal Sábado ( 1988-89 ), member of the Finance Council of state television RTP ( 1988-1991) and assessors in Meinungsrat the RTP (2004-2005 ). In 1991, he took the initiative to establish the new national TV channel TVI, a television station with " Christian spirit ". As part of the construction of the television station he was assessor in the Board of Directors ( 1991-92 ), coordinator of the legal range ( 1992-94 ), Director of Information ( 1994-95 ), advisor to the director (1996) and Board of Directors ( 1997-98 ).

Return to politics

In March 1998, the Congress of the CDS in Braga, he returned to the political scene and had himself elected to the Political Commission and the executive of the party. Then chairman of the party was Paulo Portas. In October 1999, he ran again for the Portuguese Parliament, in turn, in the constituency Braga.

However, in the Portuguese Parliament he remained only a short time since he joined shortly thereafter to the European Parliament, where he was first a member of the Union for a Europe of Nations. In the European elections of 2004, he was re-elected, but moved to the Group of the European People's Party - European Democrats.

In the European Parliament Ribeiro e Castro has held a variety of positions from the beginning; so he was the deputy chairman of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs held (1991-2001), since 2004 he is Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Family and Children's Rights. From 1999 to 2004 he was a member of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs and the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. Since 2004 he is member of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection and the Committee on Development. In addition, Ribeiro e Castro founded the parliamentary friendship Grupe Europe - Macau and was vice chairman of the advocacy group Friends of India of the European Parliament. In 2004 he observed on behalf of the European Union parliamentary elections in Mozambique and in the Ukraine, he also served as press spokesman for Human Rights of the European People's Party.

Quick return to Portugal

After the Portuguese parliamentary elections in 2005, in which the CDS -PP had to accept losses and high tuning Paulo Portas resigned as Chairman of the CDS -PP, Ribeiro e Castro ran the XX. Party Congress in April 2005 in Lisbon for the party presidency. The majority of the delegates voted for him, because there was no competing candidates .. The re-election at the XXI. Congress in Batalha in the following year he won also .. When Party Congress in April 2007, the former party leader Paulo Portas returned to the political scene and ran just like Ribeiro e Castro for the party presidency. As Ribeiro e Castro, looking back, the two wings of the party - the right-wing conservative and liberal - could not sharpen not agree and also the profile of the party, chose the CDS -PP- Portas delegates with a clear majority of 74.6 percent. Since the Congress itself Ribeiro e Castro has withdrawn from the Portuguese politics and began focusing on his work in Brussels.

José Ribeiro e Castro is married and has four children.