Mário Soares
Mário Alberto Nobre Lopes Soares? / I [ maɾiw nɔbrə lɔpɪʃ suaɾɨʃ ] ( born December 7, 1924 in Lisbon ) is a Portuguese politician of the Third Republic. He founded on 19 April 1973, the Portuguese Socialist Party. In 1974 he became foreign minister.
He was in the following terms of office Prime Minister of his country:
- First period of government from 1976 to 1977 (cabinet Soares I)
- Second period of government by 1978 ( Cabinet Soares II)
- Ninth reign from 1983 to 1985 (cabinet Soares III)
Then, Soares was in two terms President of the Republic of Portugal, namely 1986-1991 and the immediate connection of 1991 to 1996. From 1999 to 2004 he was Member of the European Parliament.
Biography
Youth and beginning of career
On December 7, 1924 Mário Alberto Nobre Lopes Soares was born the son of Elisa Nobre and João Soares. His father was a former priest, educator, Republican politicians and anti-fascists. He studied history and philosophy, then law at the University of Lisbon.
Already during his studies he joined the Communist Party (PCP ). Responsible for the Communist youth organizations, he organized the cheering demonstrations at the end of World War II and took part subsequent to the establishment of the youth organization of the movement of the United Democrats (MUD ), which he on whose Central Committee meeting chaired by Mário Azevedo Gomes took in 1946. In this capacity he was for the first time by the PIDE, the secret police Salazar, was arrested this year. As Soares in 1949 organized the candidacy of General Norton de Matos for the office of President, he was arrested for the third time already. The finally broke up with him when he discovered that Mário Soares was an "agent " of the PCP. In February 1949 he married actress Maria Barroso in the prison of Aljube.
Rise in Socialist parties
In April 1964 Francisco Ramos founded da Costa, Manuel Tito de Morais and Mário Soares in Geneva, the Portuguese Socialist Action, a unique social democratic aligned movement and the birthplace of established a decade later, the Portuguese Socialist Party (PS). The CV he had, since he had in 1951 broke with the Communists, already the republican and socialist resistance, the election campaign of Humberto Delgado ( at the office of the President 1958) - whose family made him after his assassination by the PIDE 1965 her lawyer - the " Revolta da Sé " in 1959 and the program for the democratization of the Republic in 1961.
After the regime had put him repeatedly in the prison without being able to subdue him, it was decided to deport him. In March 1968 he sailed with his wife Maria Barroso and his children, Isabel and João São Tomé and Príncipe, where he remained until November of the same year. Salazar was replaced after his famous case from the chair in the summer of this year by Marcelo Caetano, the Soares allowed to return to Lisbon.
In the elections to the National Assembly in October 1969, the opposition appeared for the first time independently. Mário Soares approached for the election of the Democratic Association unit ( Ceud ). This union was the anti-fascist opposition a clear face, but sat down as clear by the Communists from, which are organized in the Democratic Electoral Commission ( CDE). The following year, Mário Soares was exiled to Rome and then to Paris, from where he returned after the revolution directly back to Lisbon. During this time in exile he went in 1973 to a closed meeting to Bad Münster Eifel, where (PS ) was founded on 19 April 1973 with the active involvement of the then Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt, the Socialist Party.
Three days after the Carnation Revolution, on the afternoon of April 28, 1974, Maria Barroso, Mário Soares and Manuel Tito de Morais arrived in Lisbon after they had the night before ascended the Sud Express in Paris. This train went as a " train of freedom " in history. He was greeted at the Santa Apolonia train station of a cheering crowd. Back in Portugal, and finally a free man, Mário Soares immediately took over important tasks in the process of democratization of the Republic, not only as the leader of the PS, but also as Foreign Minister of the provisional governments. This office, the General Spinola offered him, he accepted on the condition that communist leader Álvaro Cunhal going into government, and thus the responsibility.
On January 16, 1975, the PS called on its first mass rally. Use the overflowing crowds in the area around the Sports Palace offered the PS PCP Álvaro Cunhal forehead, in particular their totalitarian ambitions that they wanted to impress the revolution. It was a rally against the labor union and the monopoly of the CGTP (Communist trade union ), which eventually led to the founding of the PS -affiliated trade union UGT. On the way back from Alvor, where he had signed as Secretary of the Treaty on the independence of the colonies, Mário Soares participated in this mass rally in part, beside him Salgado Zenha, the theorists in this struggle for freedom and pluralism of trade unions.
In the first free elections to the Constituent Assembly on 25 April 1975, the PS won with 38 % of the vote compared to 12.5% of the PCP an impressive result. Shortly thereafter, Mário Soares called for the dismissal of Vasco Gonçalves. It was the second show of force the PS to the late afternoon of July 19, 1975, in the hot summer, according to the then estimated that about 250,000 people flocked to the Alameda Dom Afonso Henriques in Lisbon, despite erected by supporters of the PCP barriers on the access roads of the capital.
Prime minister
In the first elections to the National Assembly, the PS got back 35 % of the vote. On July 23, 1976 Mário Soares became the first freely elected prime minister since the revolution. The democratization of the country began to consolidate. The government decided an end to the agrarian reform, an economic transition and the consolidation of the completely dysfunctional state finances.
The Socialist Party of Portugal early in the election campaign a year later came under the leadership of Mário Soares for the entry of Portugal into the European Community. As prime minister, presented Mário Soares a formal request on March 28, 1977 years later, and again as Prime Minister -. , This time in the government of the Bloco Central, a grand coalition of the PS and PSD ( Social Democratic Party ), which he day after the election victory of the Socialists June 4, 1983 had decided with the Chairman of the social Democratic Party of Portugal PSD Carlos Mota Pinto - he signed on the morning of 12 June 1985, the instrument of accession to the EC. It was his last major official act as Prime Minister before the breakup of the coalition after the election of Cavaco Silva as Chairman of the PSD. The government fell, but on 1 January 1986, Portugal was together with Spain in the second southward extension member of the EC.
President and private citizen
After the end of the grand coalition Mário Soares left the top candidate his party colleague Almeida Santos, who led a campaign " for 43 %," but was beaten hands down by Cavaco Silva. Mário Soares settled for an initially seemingly hopeless candidacy for President of the Republic. After he was on the first ballot with 25.43 % of the votes cast repelled behind the candidate of the right Diogo Freitas do Amaral ( 46.31 %), but most of which is supported by PCP and PRD Salgado Zenha ( 20.88 %), thus reached the ballot, he could decide this on February 16, 1986, 51.18 % of the votes against 48.82 % for Freitas do Amaral for themselves. This was the beginning of two terms, and ten years of a presidency in which he reached a high popularity due to its closeness to the people.
As a very special minting, Mário Soares impressed upon this country's highest office and the general " textbook of influence of the President of the Republic" was called, went his " Presidências Abertas ", a modern and democratic remake of the former " Royal trips " in history. Especially his " Presidencia Aberta " in early 1993 in the Greater Lisbon had a very strong effect. In this campaign, Soares stuck his fingers deep into the " social wounds " of the region, which were hidden under the carpet of the new motorways and the concrete Cavacos. Once again, blew on the Setúbal peninsula, the black flags of hunger - that had been raised for the first time when he was prime minister - now against Cavaco, and Soares had the pleasure to be worn by the people on his hands in a region that at that time was considered a steel stronghold of the Communists. This moment marked the beginning of the end of the era Cavaco Silva.
His second term is characterized by the systematic opposition to the equipped with an absolute majority government Cavaco Silva. Taking advantage of the constitutional power, a position he gave him, such as the right to veto bills, but even more by his "Textbook of influence " fought Mário Soares as much as possible against the power of political rights. Shortly before the end of his term in 1995 he organized the Congress " Portugal - what future? ", A sort of trial balloon for the conquest of power by the Socialists António Guterres.
In 1999, Mário Soares top candidate of his party in the elections to the European Parliament, to which he then belonged until 2004. From his private office in Lisbon and on several trips he took on through lectures, comments and interviews in the Portuguese political affairs.
At the presidential elections in January 2006, Mário Soares competed at the age of 81 years again for the office of President. However, the elections won his longtime conservative opponent Aníbal Cavaco Silva with a clear majority in the very first round. Soares came up with 14.31 % of the vote only to third place behind his party colleague Manuel Alegre ( 20.74 %).
Soares is an honorary member of the Club of Rome and was appointed as the only foreign member of the Board of Trustees of the Friedrich -Ebert -Stiftung. He was 1997-1999 President of the International European Movement.
Honors
- Prince of Asturias Award in the category of International Cooperation 1995
- Simón Bolívar Prize from the UNESCO 1998
- North - South Prize of the Council of Europe in 2000
Between 1977 and 1998 was awarded an honorary doctorate by Mário Soares of 36 universities worldwide.