Miguel Portas

2009

Miguel Portas (born May 1, 1958 in Lisbon , † April 24, 2012 in Antwerp ) was a Portuguese politician of the Bloco de Esquerda . He was a member of the European Parliament from 2004 until his death.

Life

Portas was an economist after studying at the Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão in Lisbon and worked as a cultural officer in the Ourique district and for socio-cultural affairs in the hinterland of the Algarve, as well as a trainer for development agencies. For many years he worked as a journalist for several newspapers and magazines, including director of the cultural magazine Contraste , international publisher of the magazine Revista and the weekly Expresso and editor-in-chief of the weekly Já . He also dealt with the Mediterranean in three books and two documentary series for television, which he also moderated .

Portas initially belonged to the PCP before he co-founded the Plataforma de Esquerda in 1989 . In the early 1990s, he worked as an advisor to the Mayor of Lisbon on cultural and urban issues. In 1994 he founded the Política XXI party , which is one of the predecessor parties to the Bloco de Esquerda, founded in 1999. The BE ran for the European Parliament for the first time in 1999, but failed to gain entry with 1.74 percent of the votes. In 2004 the party re-entered, this time it received 4.92 percent, which was enough for Portas' entry into the European Parliament. In 2009 the party ran for the third time in a row with Portas as the top candidate and achieved a record result with 10.73 percent of the vote.

Miguel Portas died of lung cancer. He was the older brother of Paulo Portas .

Web links

• Entry for Miguel Portas in the database of Members of the European Parliament