António Rodrigues Sampaio

António Rodrigues Sampaio

António Rodrigues Sampaio (born July 25, 1806 in Esposende , † September 13, 1882 in Sintra ) was a politician from the time of the constitutional monarchy in Portugal . He was a prominent member of the Regeneration Party , interior minister several times and in 1881 briefly foreign minister and head of government of his country .

Life

Rodrigues Sampaio was initially a political journalist and supported the cause of the liberals (supporters of a constitutional monarchy) against absolutism . When the absolutists ruled the country during the reign of King Michael , he was imprisoned from 1828 to 1831 for his political views. After the victory of the Liberals in the Miguelistenkrieg , he initially supported the Setembrists , but then approached the Duke of Saldanha , whom he would remain a close political companion throughout his life. He became a member of the Regeneration Party founded by Saldanha and was elected to the Portuguese Parliament, the Cortes , for the first time in 1851 . In 1870, in the fourth Saldanha government, he served as Minister of the Interior. After Saldanha was overthrown after a few months, left the country and no longer played a role in Portuguese domestic politics, António Maria de Fontes Pereira de Melo became the undisputed head of the Regeneration Party. Rodrigues Sampaio served this as he had previously served Saldanha and was Minister of the Interior during the entire period of the first Fontes de Melo government, from 1871 to 1877, a post he was to keep in the second Fontes de Melo government in 1879. In 1879 the opposition Progressive Party under Anselmo José Braamcamp succeeded in replacing Fontes de Melo in government. The latter could not come to terms with the loss of power and finally succeeded in overthrowing Braamcamp in 1881. Fontes de Melo believed he was too unpopular at this point to take over the government himself; he was looking for a placeholder, so to speak, and found it in Rodrique's Sampaio. He became Prime Minister himself for a short time. In the same year, however, Fontes wanted to take over the government himself, and Rodrigues Sampaio resigned in his favor.

predecessor	Office	successor
Anselmo José Braamcamp	Prime Minister of Portugal 1881	Antonio Maria de Fontes Pereira de Melo