Pedro Santana-Lopes

Pedro Miguel de Santana Lopes (Lisbon, June 29, 1956), better known as Pedro Santana Lopes, is a Portuguese politician, former Prime Minister of his country (2004-2005). He previously he was the mayor of Lisbon.

He grew up in Lisbon and was a student at the Padre António Vieira Institute. Later he studied at the University of Lisbon, founded the Movimento Independente de Direito (MID) and presides over the Academic Association of the Faculty of Law (AAFDL). After graduating in Law, he was a researcher at the Institute of European Law and the Institute for Research on Political Science and European Issues at the University of Cologne, as a fellow of the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst . He joined the Social Democratic Party in 1976. A lawyer, he was also an assistant professor of Constitutional Law at the Lisbon Law School. Years later, he would teach at the Lusíada University of Lisbon, at the Modern University and at the International University.

Close to Francisco Sá Carneiro during the founding of the Popular Democratic Party, he assumed the functions of Deputy Minister Deputy Prime Minister, in the IV Constitutional Government (1978-1979) and legal adviser, in the VI Constitutional Government (1980- 1981). His parliamentary activity began in 1980, as a deputy for Lisbon, until 1991, a position that he would resume (actively) in 2007, after the XXX Congress of the PSD, as president of the Parliamentary Group. Between 1987 and 1990 he was a member of the European Parliament. He was Secretary of State for Culture in the XI Constitutional Government. In addition, he was mayor of Figueira da Foz (1998-2001) and Lisbon (2002-2004), president of the Central Region Council (1998-2001) and vice-president of the Executive Committee of the European Forum for Urban Security (2002-2004).).

In 2004, after the resignation of Durão Barroso from the post of Prime Minister to chair the European Commission, Santana Lopes, then Vice President of the PSD and Mayor of Lisbon, was appointed Prime Minister by President Jorge Sampaio on July 17, taking possession as prime minister of the XVI Constitutional Government. Given the government instability and after several resignations of senior administrative positions, the Assembly of the Republic is dissolved and resigns. In the 2005 legislative elections, he ran as a PSD candidate, but lost to José Sócrates (of the Socialist Party). In 2008 he was a candidate for PSD leader, during the direct elections of that party, but he was defeated by Manuela Ferreira Leite. In 2009 he was once again a candidate for mayor of Lisbon for the PSD, but lost to António Costa.

As a curiosity, say that he was president of the Sporting Clube de Portugal (1995-1997).