António José Seguro It has reached this Sunday without the fuss or the staging that have become common in politics in these turbulent times. The candidate of Socialist party to preside Portugal the far-right populist is measured in the second round of the elections Andre Venturaits antithesis in substance and form. And Seguro has also reached the polls in an unexpected way, retired from politics until a few months ago since he lost a primary in October 2014 against the then mayor of Lisbon and today president of the European Council, Antonio Costa.
Born in 1962 in Penamacora municipality in central Portugal with less than 5,000 inhabitants near the border with Extremadura, was very soon linked to the Socialist Party, occupying the general secretary of youth between 1990 and 1994. In those years he also obtained a seat in Parliament and strengthened ties with António Guterreswho in 1992 was elected leader of the formation. The current Secretary General of the UN included him in his two governments, as Secretary of State for Youth in the first (1995-1997) and as deputy prime minister in the second (2001-2002). Between both positions he also went through European Parliament (1999-2001), where he was an MEP and was in charge of writing the report on the Treaty of Nicewhere he advocated more integration.
Returning to the Portuguese country, he was in charge of leading the socialist parliamentary group in the Assembly and in 2011 he was elected general secretary of the party, in the midst of the economic crisis and supervision of the ‘troika’ that separated the PS from the Government.
After losing the primary duel with Costa, Seguro immersed himself in academia. Graduated in International Relations at the Autonomous University of Lisbon, he returned to his alma mater to teach classes in Theory of the State and Political and Social Thought. He has also been a professor at the Higher Institute of Social and Political Sciences of the University of Lisbon. He is married to Margarita Maldonado Freitasa pharmacist whom he met more than 30 years ago in a nightclub and with whom he has two children whom he has tried to keep out of the public spotlight. The family resides in Caldas da Rainhaa city about 80 kilometers north of Lisbon.
Moderation
His candidacy for the presidential election did not initially bring together widespread sympathies within the Socialist Party, which took four months to express its explicit support. Most of the attacks he received from his coreligionists were for his discretionsomething that the Portuguese seem to appreciate, polls show. After winning the first round of the elections on January 18 with 31.11% of the votes, compared to 23.52% for Ventura, the polls give him a resounding victory, with close to 70% of the votes, this Sunday by attracting the support of voters in the moderate right.
“It is clear that André Ventura is a “risk to democracy”Seguro has repeated throughout the campaign about his opponent, whom he has also accused of confronting the Portuguese. On the other hand, the socialist has promised that he will be a president “equidistant” from the parties, that he will respect institutional loyalty and has assured that he will work to guarantee the stability but without ever stopping to say what he thinks.
If he wins, he must cohabitate in the center-right Executive of Luis Montenegrowho if nothing goes wrong has three and a half years left in his term dealing with the He arrives of André Ventura as the second force in the Assembly. He will also have the challenge of maintaining the bar set by his predecessor, the conservative Marcelo Rebelo de Sousawho during his 10 years at the head of the Head of State has achieved high levels of popularity due to his proximity to ordinary citizens and has managed to easily exercise his role as arbitrator and guarantor of constitutional principles. Although there are those who reproach him for his excessive interventionism for dissolving Parliament up to three times in the face of situations of blockade or political crisis, three dissolutions that have breathed greater and greater vigor into the extreme right.
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