Paulo de Sacadura Cabral Portas (born 12 September 1962, ) is a Portuguese media and political figure, who has, since the 1990s, been one of Portugal's leading conservative politicians. He was the leader of one of Portugal's right-wing parties, the CDS – People's Party (CDS-PP) from 1998 to 2005 and 2007–2016, on whose lists he was elected to the Portuguese Parliament in every legislative election between 1995 and 2015. He was Deputy Prime Minister of Portugal from 2013 to 2015, Minister of State and Foreign Affairs from 2011 to 2013, and Minister of Defence from 2002 to 2005, all three times in coalitions of the PSD and his CDS-PP. Portas withdrew from politics in 2016.
Early life
Paulo Portas was born in Lisbon and grew up in Vila Viçosa. His father, Nuno Portas, was an influential post-modernist architect, who professed progressive Roman Catholic views. His mother, Helena Sacadura Cabral (niece of aviation pioneer Artur Sacadura Cabral) is an economist, journalist and author, who held more conservative views that appear to have passed on to Paulo Portas, who stayed living with her after his parents separated. In contrast, his older brother Miguel Portas stayed with their father and became a communist and later a leftist. Their half-sister is Catarina Portas, a well-known Portuguese journalist, businesswoman and media personality. Perfil: Portas, o homem para quem fazer previsões em política "é um grande atrevimento" Público (2 July 2013)
Following the 1974 Carnation Revolution in Portugal, Paulo Portas was briefly sent to school in France but returned in 1975 to study at Lisbon's top private high school (Colégio de São João de Brito). In 1984 he got a law degree from the Portuguese Catholic University, where he met Manuel Monteiro who, 10 years later, would serve as Portas's stepping stone into the CDS-PP and national politics. Um político que de irrevogável só mesmo a contradição [Diário de Notícias] (12 August 2013) He is said to be a Church-going Catholic.Perfil: Paulo Portas, ministro dos Negócios Estrangeiros (17 June 2011)
Press career At age 12 in junior high school, Paulo Portas is said to have launched a school newspaper called "Laughs and Smiles" (Risos e Sorrisos); Paulo Portas e António Pires de Lima Sábado magazine (5 November 2010) it is not known how long it lasted. In his mid-teens (1974–75) he began contributing to the official newspaper of the youth wing of the PSD (which at the time was called Partido Popular Democrático, 'PPD'). The paper was called "On Behalf of Socialism" (Pelo Socialismo) and Portas became its chief editor. Paulo Portas(Infopédia [Em linha]. Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2013) As a teen he also began working on the conservative daily A Tarde and weekly O Tempo newspapers and soon his eloquent anti-leftist views earned him guest opinion columns in the few conservative newspapers of post-revolution Lisbon. He first became nationally known at 15 years of age when he wrote a letter-to-the-editor of the daily evening newspaper Jornal Novo that prominently published it under the heading "Three Betrayals" ("Três Traições") directly accusing then president Ramalho Eanes, prime minister Mário Soares and foreign minister Diogo Freitas do Amaral of "selling out" Portugal's African colonies in 1974–75. The article earned him a libel lawsuit from President Eanes and valuable public exposure to get his own weekly opinion column in O Tempo and, some years later, in the new weekly Semanário. Ele ainda se reconhece no Portas do Independente(Publico) (2 February 2011) In 1987, he co-founded, with Miguel Esteves Cardoso, the weekly newspaper O Independente, which started publication in May 1988 and became known for its innovative editorial concepts as well as for denouncing political scandals, often on the basis of little more than hearsay.A Nation Talking to Itself – O Independente (1988–1995)(2012) In reporting such scandals, Portas personally targeted the then prime-minister Aníbal Cavaco Silva and most of his ministers (1985–1995) thus making several enemies in the PSD. Quando Portas escrevia que Cavaco "merecia um estalo"(Expresso-Revista) (18 May 2013) Although it reached very respectable circulation levels in the 1990s, O Independente never quite reached Portas's stated objective of outselling the leading Portuguese weekly Expresso and eventually folded in 2006. Paulo Portas, o Expresso e O Independente(O Informador) (10 January 2013)
In the 1990s Portas became a TV personality appearing regularly on several Portuguese TV channels as a political commentator. He was a sporadic panel member in a popular weekly night TV talk show (Raios e Coriscos) and in the Portuguese edition of Crossfire. In 2006, after his first stint as a government minister, he returned to TV with his own biweekly show (O Estado da Arte) where he commented on current issues. Paulo Portas em O Estado da Arte (Correio da Manhã) (26 February 2006)
Political career
The formative years, 1974–85 Paulo Portas showed a precocious interest in politics and as a child engaged in lively political discussions with his elders. In 1975 he joined the youth wing of the Democratic Popular Party (PPD), which in 1976 became PSD Social Democratic Party. He would later profess to have been a staunch follower of PPD's founder Francisco Sá Carneiro, who is said to have relished the views of the 14-year-old Paulo Portas and personally sponsored his full PSD membership in 1978. Sá Carneiro died in 1980 and, following a bitter loss in an internal election of the party's youth-wing JSD, Portas quietly left PSD in 1982. He remained involved with politics through his popular opinion-columns in the conservative weekly newspapers O Tempo and Semanário.
Early political career, 1986–97 Paulo Portas took his first big step into politics in 1986 with his personal endorsement of presidential candidate Diogo Freitas do Amaral, in support of whom Portas, already a well-known media pundit, campaigned with determination. However, Freitas do Amaral lost the election and Portas stepped back from politics to launch the "O Independente" newspaper project and became its Deputy-Director. By the 1990s he was a widely recognized national figure and stated more than once on TV that he "did not want to be a politician" Paulo Portas... Nao quer ser politico? but it would later become apparent Quando Paulo Portas transformou o seu jornal num projecto politico? that he was, on the contrary, moving full speed towards becoming Portugal's leading conservative politician. He is credited with helping his former University colleague Manuel Monteiro gain the leadership of the Centro Democrático Social (CDS) party in 1992 and with coming up with new strategies, such as rebranding the CDS as the People's Party (CDS-PP) in line with several of the major conservative European parties. In 1995, Portas formally joined the CDS-PP with the full support of Manuel Monteiro, who put him at the top of the party list in the district of Aveiro thus ensuring that he would become a member of the Portuguese Parliament in that year's legislative elections. In 1997 he ran and was elected member of the municipal chamber of Oliveira de Azeméis. Presidentes do Partido – Paulo Portas
Affirmation as party leader, 1998–2001 In 1998, after the CDS-PP performed poorly in the 1997 local elections, (CNE) (14 December 1997) Portas made his move to control the party by first manoeuvering to get Manuel Monteiro to resign, and then by defeating his hand-picked successor who underestimated Portas by comparing him to Mickey Mouse. CDS á Lupa On 22 March 1998, Portas finally became President of the CDS-PP after a bitter take-over that established Portas's reputation as a cunning politician who does not hesitate to remove those who stand in his way even if they had formerly been his friends or allies. Paulo Portas: Um observador com "instinto de matador" (Jornal de Negócios) (2 July 2013)
Upon taking over the CDS-PP, he immediately sought to energize the party and earn himself name recognition by campaigning in more media-friendly ways and soon became known by his appearances in public events that earned him the nickname "Paulie of the Market Fairs" (in Portuguese: "Paulinho das Feiras"). He is also said to have brought in political marketing experts to enhance his image and that of the party. He was a leading voice against Portugal's "regionalization" and "legalization of abortion" in two 1998 referendums that did not come to pass. Paulo Portas critica Sampaio a propósito da regionalização In 1999, he headed the CDS-PP list to the European Parliament, got elected but only remained in Brussels less than six months. In 2001 he ran for Mayor of Lisbon and was soundly defeated, but got enough votes to be elected member of the City Council. Despite running under the slogan "I shall remain" (in Portuguese: "Eu fico"), he left City Council shortly afterwards to focus on the 2002 elections.
In 1993, Paulo Portas said of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa that he was an unreliable source for O Independente's, and had given an account of a political VIP dinner that had never taken place going as far as inventing that the soup served during the dinner was Vichyssoise. Se queres ganhar e não tens par: chama o Marcelo Ionline (22 October 2009) Later, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, in 1999 when he was leader of Portugal's Social Democratic Party (PSD), sought an elections alliance with Paulo Portas's CDS-PP that was initially agreed but collapsed shortly. Marcelo then had to resign from the PSD leadership. As histórias desconhecidas de Marcelo Sábado (28 November 2012)
Minister of Defence, 2002-05
In the 2002 legislative elections, the CDS-PP won 8.7 percent of the vote and 14 Parliament seats, which were sufficient to form a government majority with the PSD that won the election. (CNE) (17 March 2002) The CDS-PP participated in two coalition governments from April 2002 to March 2005 and Portas served as Minister of State and National Defence in the first (Durão Barroso) and Minister of State, National Defence and Maritime Affairs in the second (Pedro Santana Lopes). As Minister of Defence, he presided over important reforms of the military, such as abolishing conscription, Portas satisfeito com o fim do SMO (Diário de Notícias) (20 November 2004) but his most lasting legacy was the upgrade of military equipment in the context of the 2003 "Military Programming Law" Lei Orgânica n.º1/2003 (Diário da República)(23 May 2003) that envisaged a major boost in military equipment spending to 5,341 million euros, Cavaco dá apoio ao investimento militar (Correio da Manhã)(23 May 2006) including two submarines and 260 combat vehicles that would become the subject of much controversy after he left office. As Minister of Defense, Paulo Portas was also determinant in aligning Portugal with George W. Bush's 2003 Iraq invasion by saying he had personally "seen irrefutable evidence of weapons of mass destruction" while on an official visit to Washington. He was subsequently awarded the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service by the USA's Defense Department.Paulo Portas' CV (European Parliament)(20 March 2007)
Back in Parliament, 2006–11