Paulo Portas
Paulo de Sacadura Cabral Portas, mostly Paulo Portas ( born September 12, 1962 in Lisbon, Portugal) is a Portuguese politician of the conservative party Centro Democrático e Social - Partido Popular. He was Minister of Defence between 2002 and 2005 and between 2011 and 2013 Foreign Minister of Portugal. Previously, he also worked as a journalist and founded the now no longer appearing weekly newspaper O Independente with.
Since the successful 2011 general election his party CDS -PP is involved again on the Portuguese government under Passos Coelho as a small coalition partner. Portas has held the post of deputy prime minister in a cabinet formation in July 2013.
Life
Childhood and youth
Paulo Portas was born on 12 September 1962 in a middle class family in Lisbon. His father Nuno Portas, a well-known architect, and his mother Helena Sacadura Cabral, journalist and writer, separated five years later. Since then, Paulo Portas lived with his mother, while his brother Miguel Portas, until his death, was raised in 2012 a leading member of the Bloco de Esquerda with his father. Both are great-nephew of the famous glider pilot Artur de Sacadura Freire Cabral, who was known as a companion to the common Gago Coutinhos South Atlantic crossing in 1922.
Training
He was educated entirely on the usual family tradition by Jesuit school Colégio São João de Brito in Lisbon. Then Portas law and journalism studies at the Catholic University of Lisbon. He achieved fame in 1978 with his newspaper articles Três Traições, (Eng. " Triple Betrayal " ), in which he criticized the three prominent politicians António dos Santos Ramalho Eanes, Diogo Freitas do Amaral and Mário Soares for their policy of decolonization after the Carnation Revolution in 1974. Immediately after the fall of the Portuguese dictatorship ( Estado Novo) dismissed Portugal in 1975, its colonies of Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea- Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe to independence.
Career
But before he actively participated in the Portuguese policy, Portas was instrumental as a journalist. In 1988 he founded, together with Miguel Esteves Cardoso, the weekly newspaper O Independente, which was known for the discovery of various scandals under the government of Aníbal Cavaco Silva ( 1985-1995 ), but has also been criticized for their polemics.
Political career
At the age of twelve years, joined Paulo Portas, the youth organization Juventude Social Democrata ( JSD ) of the Partido Popular Democrático (now Partido Social Democrata, social democrats ) and became a staunch supporter of the founder, and later Prime Minister Francisco Sá Carneiro. After his death, 1980, Portas but was disappointed with the party leadership and decided in 1983 from the Social Democratic Party to withdraw.
In 1995, Paulo Portas as a representative of the Portuguese People's Party Centro Democrático e Social - Partido Popular ( CDS -PP) for the electoral district of Aveiro, Member of the Portuguese Parliament, for which he abandoned his activities as editor of O Independente. Three years later he was elected by a vote against Manuel Monteiro as chairman of his party. 1999 Portas was briefly a member of the European Parliament. After the election of the Portuguese Parliament in 2002, the opposition Social Democrats, although so far the strongest force was, however, no absolute majority obtained, Portas ' Party entered into a coalition with the Social Democrats. As chairman of his party, he took over the post of defense minister and was also Deputy Prime Minister under the government Durão Barroso. Even after the outgoing Prime Minister José Manuel Durão Barroso was EU Commission chief and Pedro Santana Lopes took office, Portas was defense minister.
During his tenure as Secretary of Defense Portas prevented using warships entering the Dutch abortion aid organization Women on Waves in Portuguese waters. The organization had planned to bring Portuguese women in international waters, there to enable them to abortion. At the time of abortion in Portugal was permitted only in exceptional cases. While his brother Miguel Portas, Member of the European Left, the decision criticized, Paulo Portas received a lot of encouragement by the Catholic Church and opponents of abortion.
The U.S. attack on Iraq in the spring of 2003 in the Third Gulf War supported Portugal in the tenure of Portas by the posting of Portuguese soldiers.
After President Jorge Sampaio 2005, the dissolved parliament in the reign of Pedro Santana Lopes, new elections were required. In poll February 10, 2005, the CDS -PP suffered under Paulo Portas significant losses and two of their 14 seats in parliament, so he due to the Can not Reach dial destinations ( election result by ten percent, remain as drittstärtkste political power and avoid an absolute majority of Socialists ) nor on election night resigned from his offices. He was still active as an opposition politician in the Portuguese Parliament.
During his time as an opposition politician, he hosted the political talk show on private channel SIC O Estado da Arte. In April 2007, gained Paulo Portas - again in a crucial vote - with 75 percent of the party presidency of the CDS -PP against the incumbent José Ribeiro e Castro.
In the parliamentary elections in June 2011, the conservative camp has seen significant gains, so that the victorious Partido Social Democrata entered into a coalition with the smaller CDS -PP under Pedro Passos Coelho, Portas was there involved in the coalition negotiations. On June 21, 2011 President Cavaco Silva appointed him as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Cabinet Passos Coelho, a position he held until July 24, 2013. Since July 24, 2013, is Deputy Prime Minister in the Cabinet Passos Coelho.