José Sócrates de Carvalho Pinto de Sousa, born in Vilar de Maçada September 6, 1957) is a Portuguese politician, secretary-general of the Socialist Party and prime minister of Portugal since March 12, 2005. For the second half of 2007, he is the President-in-Office of the Council of the European Union. In addition to these posts, José Sócrates was Portugal's Minister for Youth and Sports and one of the organisers of the EURO 2004 football championship in Portugal, as well as being a former Portugal's Minister for Environment, in the government teams of António Guterres.

Biography

Early years

José Sócrates was born in Porto on the 6th September, 1957, but was registered as a newborn in Vilar de Maçada, Alijó municipality in northeastern Portugal, since the locality was his family ancestral homeland. However, the young José Sócrates lived throughout his childhood and teen years with his father, a divorced architect, in the city of Covilhã, Cova da Beira subregion in central inland Portugal, in the Centro region.

Education

José Sócrates studied in Covilhã's basic and secondary schools, until the age of 18. Then, in 1975, he went to Coimbra in order to attend a higher education institution. He earned in 1979 his 4-year bacharelato degree as a civil technical engineer from the Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Coimbra (established in 1974 and later incorporated into the Institut Politécnico de Coimbra in 1988). From 1987 to 1993, he attended Universidade Lusíada, a private university in Lisbon, enrolling in law, but dropped out. In 1994/95, already a well known politician, he briefly attended the Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa where he completed some academic disciplines in order to get a CESE diploma (a complementary diploma to his bacharelato degree because until 1999 the polytechnic institutions did not offer licenciatura degrees), but instead, under circumstances which would provoke a fait-divers controversy in 2007, he earned in 1996 the licenciatura (licentiate degree) in civil engineering from the Universidade Independente, a private university in Lisbon. He also has an MBA awarded in 2005 by ISCTE, a public university institute in Lisbon.

Political career

José Sócrates was one of the founders of JSD (the youth branch of PSD - Portuguese Social Democratic Party) before changing his political affiliation and apply for membership in the PS - Portuguese Socialist Party. He has been a member of the Socialist Party since 1981. José Sócrates served as a technical engineer for the Covilhã City Council, and was a member of the Portuguese Parliament from 1987 until 1995, representing the Castelo Branco electoral district. While serving as the chairperson of the Castelo Branco Federation of the Socialist Party (1983-1996), he was elected to the Party's National Secretariat in 1991. From 1989 to 1996, he served as a member of the Covilhã Municipal Assembly. He served as spokesperson on environmental affairs for the Socialist Party from 1991 to 1995. In 1995, he entered government as secretary of state for Environment in the first government of António Guterres. Two years later, Sócrates became Minister for Youth and Sports and was one of the organizers of the EURO 2004 cup in Portugal. He became Minister for Environment in Guterres' second government in 1999. Following the elections of 2002 (won by José Manuel Durão Barroso), Sócrates became a member of the opposition in the Portuguese Parliament. After the resignation of Ferro Rodrigues as party leader in 2004, he won a bid for the post of secretary-general against Manuel Alegre and João Soares, winning the vote of nearly 80% of party members on 24 September 2004. After the landslide victory of his party in the 2005 Portuguese election, Sócrates was called on 24 February by president Jorge Sampaio to form a new government - the XVII Governo Constitucional.

Personal life

José Sócrates Carvalho Pinto de Sousa (né le 6 septembre 1957 à Vilar de Maçada, Vila Real) est un homme politique portugais, secrétaire général du Parti socialiste depuis septembre 2004 et Premier ministre du pays. Il a remporté la majorité absolue aux élections législatives du 20 février 2005 (121 députés sur 230).
Ingénieur civil, il a un diplôme supérieur en ingénierie sanitaire (obtenu à l'Ecole nationale de santé publique). Sa carrière politique débuta peu après la Révolution des œillets, comme membre des Jeunesses social-démocrates (actuel PSD), qu'il quitta peu après. Au sein du PS auquel il s'affilia en 1981, il devint président de la fédération socialiste du district de Castelo Branco, entre 1986 et 1995. En 1987, il fut élu député pour la première fois et il devint secrétaire national du parti à partir de 1991. En 1995, il devint membre du gouvernement d'António Guterres comme secrétaire d'État adjoint au ministre de l'Environnement. Deux ans après, il devint Ministre délégué à la Toxicomanie, à la Jeunesse et aux Sports. À ce poste, il eut un rôle déterminant dans la réussite des Championnat d'Europe de football 2004 dont il a assuré la bonne préparation. En octobre 1999, il devint ministre de l'Environnement et de l'Aménagement du territoire dans le 2e gouvernement de Guterres, jusqu'à la démission dudit gouvernement en avril 2002. Redevenu simple député de l'opposition, il s'illustra comme commentateur politique à la RTP (radio télévision portugaise). Il domina le congrès du PS en 2004 (près de 80 % des voix lors du congrès de septembre malgré trois candidats) et fut désigné tête de liste dans le district de Castelo Branco.
Il est divorcé, et père de deux enfants de 9 et 11 ans.
Il est actuellement président de l'Union Européenne pour un mandat de 6 mois dans le cadre de la présidence portugaise qui s'étend jusqu'au 31 décembre.

Premier ministre

From Wikipedia.org