Pedro Santana Lopes
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| Image:PedroSantanaLopes.jpg | |
| Order: | 14th Prime Minister of Portugal (since the Portuguese Constitution of 1976) |
|---|---|
| Term of Office | 29 June, 2004 - 12 March, 2005 |
| Predecessor: | José Manuel Durão Barroso |
| Successor: | José Sócrates |
| Date of Birth | June 29, 1956 |
| Place of Birth: | Lisbon |
| Political Party: | Social Democratic |
Pedro Miguel de Santana Lopes (pron. IPA /Template:IPA/; born June 29, 1956) is a Portuguese politician, and was Prime Minister of Portugal from 2004 to 2005. He is currently a Member of the Portuguese Parliament.
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Biography
Santana Lopes was born in Lisbon, and graduated in Law from the University of Lisbon, where he was leader of the students Union. He joined the Portuguese Social Democratic Party (PSD) in 1976, and has remained a member ever since.
In 1979, he became legal advisor to Prime Minister Francisco Sá Carneiro, and has presented himself as a follower of his for all his political life.
In 1986, he became Assistant State Secretary to Prime Minister Aníbal Cavaco Silva, an office he left the next year to lead to PSD list to the European Parliament, where he remained for two years of his five-year-term.
In 1991, Cavaco Silva appointed him Secretary of State for Culture. Leaving office, he became president of Sporting Clube de Portugal, and later the Mayor of Figueira da Foz (the only time that he has ever completed a term in office) and then of Lisbon. During this period he also earned a living as a sports and political commentator; in 1998, he announced his withdrawal from politics, following a comical sketch in private TV station which presented him and his private life in a very unfavourable light.
After three unsuccessful attempts to become leader of his party, Santana Lopes finally rose to vice-president under José Manuel Durão Barroso, a man who had once called him "a mix of [astrologer] Zandinga and [sports commentator] Gabriel Alves." When Durão Barroso July 2004 resigned from his office as Prime Minister and party leader to take up the Presidency of the European Commission in early July 2004, Santana Lopes became the head of the PSD. Because the PSD was the major partner in the coalition government at the time, the Party proposed Santana Lopes for the post of Prime Minister, a position to which he was formally invited by president Jorge Sampaio on July 12 2004.
Prime Minister
Santana Lopes' leadership was made difficult by a number of inherited economic and political problems. When the PSD had first taken power, the country’s economy was in a poor state, with a rising government-spending deficit. Partially because of policies focused on public expenditure of the previous governments (led by Aníbal Cavaco Silva (PSD) and António Guterres of the Socialist Party) and the early 2000s recession had left the country's economy in a poor state. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit on 11th January 2005, "Portugal became the first country to breach the EU's ‘excessive deficit’ rule with a budget deficit of 4.4% of GDP in 2001, well above the 3% of GDP ceiling set by the EU's Stability and Growth Pact." The situation inherited by Santana Lopes was little better, as the previous government led by Barroso had been able to comply with European Union directives regarding the deficit only by the sale of publicly owned assets. Santana Lopes himself failed to gain a reputation as a competent Prime Minister. His unusual rise to power, as Barroso's successor rather than by election, contributed to these difficulties. Although his appointment was in fact constitutional, he was not a Member of Parliament but only a municipal leader, as the Mayor of Lisbon, and many columnists thus saw him as an illegitimate Prime Minister, a view shared by a large section of the public.
Santana Lopes' short career as Prime Minister began inauspiciously, with some members of government being shuffled between departments on the same afternoon as the government was being inaugurated. His Minister of Defence Paulo Portas was taken by surprise during the ceremony when he was announced as the Minister for National Defence and Sea Affairs. Portas' look of surprise when the change was announced was broadcast live on television.
Santana Lopes' period in office was also marked by chaos in the allocation of teachers to schools (more than a month after classes officially started, and resulting from alleged incompetence of the IT provider (designated during the previous Government); the problem was swiftly solved by another small provider), and by claims of pressure exerted on the press, including arranging for the replacement of the information director of the public television channel RTP, and pressing private television channel TVI to tone down the criticism of him by a political commentator, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, a former leader of his own party, who consequently left the channel.
The beginning of the end of the Santana Lopes Administration occurred on November 30, when President Sampaio announced that he was going to dissolve the Portuguese Parliament and call early elections for February 2005, after Henrique Chaves, a Santana Lopes loyalist, resigned after four days as minister for sport, claiming that Santana Lopes lacked "loyalty and truth".
Santana Lopes announced the resignation of the government on December 11. This resignation did not, however, have any immediate practical effect, since the government continued in a caretaker role until the election. He went on to lead his party to their worst result in parliamentary elections in Portugal; the election of 20 February was won by the Socialist Party led by José Sócrates, with whom Santana Lopes had debated every Sunday for one year on the public television station, RTP. Despite expectations that he would follow his coalition partner, Paulo Portas, and resign on election night, he only announced that he would leave the leadership two days later.
Two days after the inauguration of the new government, he returned to complete his term as Mayor of Lisbon. However, when his party failed to endorse him as a candidate for the 2005 municipal elections, he resigned his office one month before the vote, to assume office as Member of Parliament, which he immediately suspended. The place of Mayor was occupied by the Vice-Mayor, António Carmona Rodrigues, who was elected Mayor in 2005 municipal elections.
Personal
Santana Lopes is divorced, and has five children by three ex-wives.
Gaffes
Santana Lopes is known for his Quaylesque gaffes, which include:
- claiming that the non-existent Chopin violin concerto was his favourite piece of classical music;
- sending a postcard to Brazilian author Machado de Assis (who died in 1908);
- calling a press conference to announce that he was being threatened when in fact he had received a mailing for a book titled Cuidado com os rapazes ("Watch out for the boys");
- announcing that he would leave political life as a protest against criticism, and then changing his mind after a few days;
- missing a formal dinner during a State visit in order to attend a fashion show;
- postponing the inauguration of some of his vice-ministers in order to attend a wedding;
- appearing lost in the middle of his inauguration speech, with long and embarrassing silences, confusing pages and looking nervous.
Bibliography
Co-author with José Manuel Durão Barroso: Sistema de Governo e Sistema Partidário, Livraria Bertrand, 1980.
Os Sistemas de Governos Mistos e o actual Sistema Português, Difel Editorial, 2001.
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