Aníbal Cavaco Silva

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**Aníbal A. Cavaco Silva**
Image:Cavacopresidente.jpg
Order:	11th Prime Minister of Portugal elected 21st President of Portugal (6th since the Carnation Revolution)
Term of office	as Prime Minister: November 6, 1985 - October 28, 1995; as President: 9 March 2006 - Present.
Predecessor:	as Prime Minister: Mário Soares; as President: Jorge Sampaio
Successor:	as Prime Minister: António Guterres; as President: incumbent
Date of birth	July 15, 1939
Place of birth:	Boliqueime, Loulé
Occupation:	Economist and University Professor
Spouse:	Maria Cavaco Silva
Political Party:	Social Democratic Party (PSD)

Aníbal António Cavaco Silva (pron. IPA /Template:IPA/; born in Boliqueime in Loulé municipality in the Algarve region, on July 15, 1939) is the President of the Republic of Portugal, having won the Portuguese presidential election on January 22, 2006. Cavaco Silva was sworn in on March 9, 2006.

He was previously Prime Minister of Portugal from November 6, 1985 to October 28, 1995. His tenure of ten years was the longest of any democratically elected Prime Minister in Portuguese history, and he was the first Portuguese Prime Minister to have won an absolute parliamentary majority, a feat which he achieved twice.

1 Early career
2 Decade in power: 1985-1995
3 Out of office: 1995 - 2006
4 Presidential election, 2006
5 Timeline
6 Biography
7 External links

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Early career

With his background as a professor of economics and a doctorate from the University of York, Cavaco Silva was appointed Minister of Finance by Prime Minister Francisco Sá Carneiro in 1980. He gained a reputation as an economic liberalizer, gradually dismantling regulations inhibiting free enterprise. He refused to serve in the Center Bloc coalition of Socialists and Social Democrats (PSD) that governed from 1983 to 1985, and his election to the leadership of the PSD on 2 June, 1985, portended the end of the coalition.

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Decade in power: 1985-1995

The election that followed was complicated by the arrival of a new political party, the Party for Democratic Renewal (PRD) formed by the supporters of the President, António Ramalho Eanes. In the 250-member Assembly of the Republic, the nation's legislature, the PRD won 45 seats - at the expense of every party except Cavaco Silva's PSD. Despite winning less than 30 percent of the vote and 88 seats, the PSD was the only traditional political party not to suffer substantial losses; its 88 seats, in fact, represented a gain of 13 over the previous election. Cavaco Silva became Prime Minister on 6 November 1985.

Tax cuts and economic deregulation, along with the arrival of EU funds, spurred several years of uninterrupted economic growth, which increased Cavaco Silva's popularity. He was hampered, however, by a parliament controlled by the opposition. On most issues, his Social Democrats could rely on the 22 votes of the Social and Democratic Center Party (CDS), but the two parties' combined 110 votes fell 16 short of a parliamentary majority. The Socialists and Communists held 57 and 38 seats respectively; Cavaco Silva could govern if the 45 members of the PRD, who held the balance of power, abstained, as they frequently did. In 1987, however, the PRD withdrew its tacit support, and a parliamentary vote of no confidence forced president Mário Soares to call an early election.

The results of the election stunned even the most optimistic of Cavaco Silva´s supporters. His Social Democrat party captured 50.2 percent of the popular vote and 148 of the 250 seats in the Assembly of the Republic. Far behind were the Socialists, with only 60 seats, and the Communists, with 31. The CDS and the PRD were virtually wiped out, left with only 4 and 7 seats, respectively. This was the first time in Portuguese history that a single party had won an outright parliamentary majority.

The 1991 election was another triumph for Cavaco Silva, which yielded a majority almost as large as the one of four years earlier. However, a continued high unemployment rate, along with some hints of corruption on the part of some Ministers eroded the popularity of his government. He decided not to contest the 1995 election, and the PSD, lacking a leader of his stature, lost 48 seats and the election.

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Out of office: 1995 - 2006

Cavaco Silva contested the 1996 Presidential election, but was defeated by the Mayor of Lisbon, Jorge Sampaio, the Socialist candidate. Retiring from politics, he served for several years as an advisor to the board of the Banco de Portugal (Bank of Portugal), but retired from this position in 2004. He then became a full Professor at the School of Economics and Management of the Catholic University of Portugal, where he teaches the undergraduate and MBA programs.

He declined to support Pedro Santana Lopes in the parliamentary election of 2005, despite pressure from within his party.

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Presidential election, 2006

On October 20, 2005, Cavaco Silva announced his candidacy to the Presidential election. He was elected president on January 22, 2006 with 50.6% of votes cast, avoiding a second-round run-off. He is the first elected Centre-right president in Portugal since 1974. He is also the second former Prime Minister to be elected to the Presidency, following in the footsteps of Mário Soares.

He was sworn-in on March 9, 2006.

Image:2006 Presidential Campaign.jpg

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Timeline

<timeline> ImageSize = width:680 height:450 PlotArea = left:50 right:0 bottom:10 top:10

DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:1935 till:2015 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:1935 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1 start:1970

PlotData=

 color:green mark:(line,black) align:left fontsize:S 
 shift:(25,0) # shift text to right side of bar

 # there is no automatic collision detection, fontsize:XS 
 # so shift texts up or down manually to avoid overlap shift:(25,-10)

 at:1939             text:15 July - born in Boliqueime
 at:1974             text:Graduates with Doctorate from University of York
 at:1980             text:Finance Minister under Francisco Sá Carneiro
 at:1985             text:2 June - President of Social Democratic Party
 from:1985 till:1995 text:Prime Minister
 at:1996             text:Contests Presidential election; loses to Jorge Sampaio
 at:2006 shift:(25,-5)            text:22 January - Elected President
 from:2006 till:2011 text:President of Portugal
 </timeline>

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