Assunção Cristas has take over as president of the CDS-PP People’s Party* leaving Paulo Portas wiping away tears as he heads for a change of career after 16 years.
Cristas, the former coalition Minister for Agriculture, is the first woman to run the party and is the seventh leader since the CDS - Partido Popular was founded on 19th July, 1974 in the aftermath of the Carnation Revolution.
In her closing speech at the party congress in Oporto, Cristas challenged the ruling Socialist Party to participate in a reform of the pension system and in a revision of the financial system’s regulation, including the issue over the appointment of the governor of the Bank of Portugal.
Cristas was elected by a vote in favour of her appointment of 95.59%, more than Paulo Portas had ever managed, and was well received by an audience of about 1,500 party members.
She will have Nuno Melo as a vice-president as well as the former Secretary of State for Tourism, Adolfo Mesquita Nunes who will be keen to put the failure of his Alojamento Local scheme behind him and devise policies that have a chance of working.
In her inaugural speech, Cristas referred to her family, to her mother's condition and to her Catholic faith, even bringing her husband and children to the last day of the conference so she could appear as a ‘super mum’.
As for Paulo Portas’ legacy, the party has 18 MPs of a total of 230 in Portugal’s assembly leaving Cristas the job of building support, defining policy and preparing for the next general election in four years time.
Many are hopeful that Portas' new occupation will be well away from the political arena and that he may go into industry where his contacts with German submarine manufacturers should easily be revived.
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*CDS – Partido Popular, comes from the Centro Democrático e Social – Partido Popular, CDS-PP. In voting ballots the party's name appears only as People's Party, with the acronym CDS-PP unchanged.
Paulo Portas in former years
