Pedro Santana Lopes

Pedro Santana Lopes was born in Campo Grande, Lisbon, to Aníbal Luís Lopes (b. Lisbon, São Sebastião da Pedreira, 17 February 1933), a company administrator whose maternal grandfather's maternal grandfather was a relative of João Brandão, and wife (m. Lisbon, São Sebastião da Pedreira, 27 February 1954) Maria Ivone Risques Pereira de Santana (Lisbon, São Sebastião da Pedreira, 3 May 1931 – Lisbon, 23 March 1999), a half-great-great-great-niece of the 2nd Baron of Brissos.

He graduated as a Licentiate in law from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon, where he was the leader of the Student Union, becoming a lawyer.

Pedro Miguel de Santana Lopes (born 29 June 1956) is a Portuguese lawyer and politician, who is the current Mayor of Figueira da Foz.

He joined the Social Democratic Party (PSD) in 1976.

There he started his career as a deputy to the Assembly of the Republic.

In 1979, he became a legal advisor to Prime Minister Francisco Sá Carneiro, and has identified himself as a follower of his for all his political life.

In 1986, he became the 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 1990, Cavaco Silva appointed him to the government post of Secretary of State for Culture.

He left the office in 1994, in disagreement with Cavaco, and returned to law practice.

In the 1997 local elections, he ran successfully to become mayor of Figueira da Foz.

He decided not to seek a second term there, and instead ran for mayor of Lisbon in the 2001 local elections, defeating the incumbent João Soares and becoming one of the biggest surprises of the electoral night.

According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, "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 a little better, as the previous government led by Barroso had been able to comply with European Union directives regarding the deficit by selling state 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, despite his nomination being entirely constitutional.

The short career of Santana Lopes as prime minister began 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 looked surprised during the ceremony when he was announced as the Minister for National Defence and Sea Affairs.

Portas' look of surprise when the name of his office 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.

When his party took power, after the 2002 legislative elections, the country's economy was in a poor state, with a rising government-spending deficit, partially because of policies focused on public expenditure by the previous governments (led by António Guterres of the Socialist Party) and the early 2000s recession.

He most notably served as prime minister of Portugal from 2004 to 2005.

When José Manuel Durão Barroso resigned in July 2004 to take up the presidency of the European Commission, Santana Lopes became the president of PSD.

At the time, his party had a coalition government with the CDS - People's Party, which held a parliamentary majority, and therefore he was nominated prime minister of the XVI Constitutional Government.

His term as mayor of Lisbon was automatically suspended, with his deputy Carmona Rodrigues taking over his duties.

The leadership of Santana Lopes was marked by a number of inherited economic and political problems.

Santana Lopes' demise as head of government was sealed on 30 November 2004 when President Jorge Sampaio, a member of the opposing party, announced that he was calling an early Parliament election for February 2005, from which a new government would be formed, after Henrique Chaves, a Santana loyalist, resigned after four days as Minister for Sport, claiming that he lacked "loyalty and truth".

Santana Lopes formally tendered his resignation on 11 December, and his government assumed just a caretaker role until the election.

He went on to be defeated in the 2005 legislative elections which was won by the Socialist Party led by José Sócrates.

Santana resigned as party leader two days later, although he still briefly assumed the informal position of leader of the opposition, until the election of Luís Marques Mendes as new party leader.

Despite his defeat in the 2005 legislative elections, Santana Lopes retained his seat at the Assembly of the Republic.

He would also resume his functions as mayor of Lisbon, which had been suspended since he took office as prime minister.

However, he decided not to seek another term on the 2005 local elections, being succeeded by his deputy, Carmona Rodrigues, who had also replaced him during his premiership.

In October 2007, after the election of Luís Filipe Menezes as leader of the Social Democratic Party, he was invited to lead the PSD Parliamentary Group, a position he held until Menezes' resignation in June 2008.

On the 2009 local elections, Santana Lopes ran again for mayor of Lisbon, supported by his party and by the CDS - People's Party, the Earth Party and the People's Monarchist Party.

This coalition was, however, unable to prevent the Socialist Party, led by António Costa, to achieve a big victory.

Santana Lopes assumed the position of leader of the opposition in the municipality.

In September 2011, Santana Lopes was nominated by Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho to assume leadership of Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa, a charity that runs Portugal's national lottery.

In March 2016, the new prime minister, António Costa, nominated Santana Lopes for a new term.

In October 2017, Santana Lopes announced the intention to run again for the leadership of the Social Democratic Party.

He resigned leadership of Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa in order to do so, but was defeated by Rui Rio.