Jorge Sampaio

Jorge Fernando Branco de Sampaio (listen (?·i)(Lisbon, September 18, 1939-Carnaxide, September 10, 2021) was a Portuguese politician. He was president of Portugal between 1996 and 2006.

Biography

Family

Jorge Sampaio was descended by his maternal grandmother from a Portuguese Jewish family and lived some years of his youth in the United States and England, due to the professional activity of his father, a doctor. His father, Arnaldo Sampaio, was a specialist in Public Health. His mother, Fernanda Bensaúde Branco de Sampaio, was a private English language teacher.

Marriage and offspring

Jorge Sampaio was married and had two children.

Political career

He began his political career when he was studying Law at the University of Lisbon. He was involved in the opposition to the Fascist regime and was the leader of the Lisbon student association between 1960 and 1961. After graduating in 1961, he started a notable career as a lawyer, often involved in the defense of various political prisoners.

After the Carnation Revolution of April 25, 1974, he was a founder of the MES (Movimiento de Izquierda Socialista), but he abandoned the project shortly after. In 1978 he joined the PS, the Socialist Party, where always remained. His first election as a deputy for Lisbon in the Assembly of the Republic was in 1979. Between this year and 1984, he was a member of the European Commission for Human Rights, where he carried out important work on these matters.

Between 1986 and 1987 he was president of the Parliamentary Group of the Socialist Party. In 1989 he was elected president of the party, a post he held until 1991. Also in 1989, Sampaio was elected mayor of Lisbon and was later re-elected in 1993. In 1995, he announced his desire to run for the Presidency of the Republic.

Presidency

He won the election immediately in the first round, against Aníbal Cavaco Silva, the previous prime minister, and became president on January 14, 1996. After a first term without controversy, he was re-elected on January 14, 2001.

As president, his action focused on social and cultural aspects. On the international political scene, Sampaio was an important contributor to the awareness of the cause for the independence of East Timor.

Jorge Sampaio and the president of Brazil Lula da Silva.

The presidency of Jorge Sampaio was always marked by a firm sense of prudence and moderation, a style that ensured him a first term without controversy. In 2004, however, his decision not to call early elections after the resignation of Conservative Prime Minister José Manuel Durão Barroso was discussed by all left-wing parties and ended up influencing the decision to resign Socialist Party leader Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues; and in 2005, his reverse decision to dissolve Parliament and to call early elections was discussed by all the right-wing parties, which constituted a coalition with a stable majority, and which was motivated by disagreement with the political procedure of then Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopez.

On September 8, 2000, the Government of Spain awarded him the necklace of the Order of Carlos III

In 2007 he was appointed by the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon, as High Representative of this international organization for the Alliance of Civilizations.

Honorary Distinctions

Necklace of the Order of Charles III (2000)