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Pedro Miguel de Santana Lopes (born June 29, 1956) is a Portuguese politician, and the Prime Minister of Portugal since July 17, 2004.
Santana Lopes was born in Lisbon and graduated in Law from the University of Lisbon. He joined the Portuguese Social Democratic Party (PSD) in 1976, where he remains until present day.
He was part of the Portuguese government as the Secretary of State for Culture when Aníbal Cavaco Silva was Prime Minister. He was also Sporting Clube de Portugal's president, and later mayor of Figueira da Foz (the only occasion he finished a term in office) and then Lisbon. During this period, he also earned a living as a sports and political commentator.
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 astrologist and sports commentator." In early July 2004, Durão Barroso resigned from his duties as Prime Minister and party leader in order to be appointed President of the European Commission, and Santana Lopes became the head of PSD. Because PSD was the major party in the coalition government at the time, Santana Lopes also inherited the seat of Prime Minister, a position he was formally invited to by president Jorge Sampaio on July 12, 2004. On November 30, President Sampaio announced he would dissolve the Portuguese Parliament and call early elections for February, to which Santana Lopes announced on December 11 the resignation of the government. This resignation does not, however, have any practical effect, since the government will continue as a caretaker government anyway until after the elections.
Santana Lopes is divorced and has five children of three different ex-wives.
Gaffes
Santana Lopes is known for his Quaylesque gaffes, which include:
- claiming Chopin's violin concerto as his favourite piece of classical music (a piece which the composer never wrote)
- sending a postcard to Brazilian author Machado de Assis (who died in 1908)
- calling a press conference to announce 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 the political life to protest against criticism, and then changing his mind after a few days.
- missing a formal dinner during a State visit to be able to attend a fashion show.
- postponning the inauguration of some of his vice-ministers to attend a wedding.
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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