Jerónimo de Sousa

Jerónimo Carvalho de Sousa (Santa Iria de Azoia, April 13, 1947) is a Portuguese metal worker and politician. He was general secretary of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) from November 27, 2004 to November 12, 2022, when he was succeeded by Paulo Raimundo.

Biography

He was born in the village of Pirescoxe, belonging to the freguesia of Santa Iria de Azoia, in the council of Loures, where he still resides today. Between 1969 and 1971 he carried out military service in Guinea-Bissau, while the Portuguese Colonial War was taking place.

Jerónimo de Sousa attended the old Industrial Course and began working at the age of 14, as a machine tuner in a factory. He was a union delegate in that same factory, reaching the leadership of the Lisbon Metallurgists Union in 1973. He joined the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) in 1974, shortly after the Carnation Revolution, and was elected member of the Committee Central in 1979. He was a deputy in the Constituent Assembly, between 1975 and 1976, and elected several times for the Assembleia da República, between 1976 and 1992 and, again, in 2002, for the Setúbal constituency.