Miguel Portas

Miguel Portas ( born May 1, 1958 in Lisbon, † April 24, 2012 in Antwerp) was a Portuguese politician of the Bloco de Esquerda. He belonged to the European Parliament from 2004 until his death.

Life

Portas was an economist, after he had studied at the Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão, Lisbon, and worked as a Commissioner for Culture in the district of Ourique and Socio- Cultural Affairs in the hinterland of the Algarve, as well as an instructor of developmental carriers. For many years he worked as a journalist for several newspapers and magazines, among other things, he was the director of the cultural magazine Contraste, international editor of the journal Revista and the weekly newspaper Expresso and chief editor of the weekly newspaper Já. In addition, he worked in three books and two documentary series for television, he also hosted, with the Mediterranean.

Portas belonged first to the PCP before he co-founded the Plataforma de Esquerda 1989. Beginning of the nineties he worked as Advisor to the Mayor of Lisbon, for cultural and urban affairs. In 1994 he founded the party Política XXI, which is considered one of the predecessors of the parties, founded in 1999 Bloco de Esquerda. The BE ran first time in 1999 for the European Parliament, but managed with 1.74 percent of the vote not the feeder. 2004, the party came again, this time she received 4.92 percent, which was enough for the collection Portas ' in the European Parliament. 2009 joined the party for the third time in a row Portas as top candidates and scored with 10.73 percent of votes, a record result.

Miguel Portas died of lung cancer. He was the older brother of Paulo Portas.