Biography
He graduated as a Licentiate in Law from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon, where he was Leader of the Student Union, becoming a lawyer. He joined the Portuguese Social Democratic Party (PSD) in 1976, and has remained a member ever since. 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 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 1991, Cavaco Silva appointed him to the government post of Secretary of State for Culture. Leaving office, he successively ran for, and won, 43rd President of Sporting Clube de Portugal (1995–1996), winning the 1994/1995 Taça de Portugal in soccer, Mayor of Figueira da Foz (the only time that he completed a term in office), and Mayor of Lisbon. During this period he also earned a living as a sports and political commentator and founded a weekly newspaper, Semanário. In 1998, he announced his withdrawal from politics, following a comical sketch in private TV station which presented him and his private life in a very unfavourable light.
After three unsuccessful attempts to become leader of his party, Santana Lopes rose to Vice-President under José Manuel Durão Barroso, who had once called him "a mix of Zandinga (astrologer) and Gabriel Alves (sports commentator)." When Barroso resigned in July 2004 to take up the Presidency of the European Commission, Santana Lopes became the PSD leader and President. As his party was the major partner in the coalition government at the time, he also moved to Prime Minister, suspending his term as Mayor of Lisbon.
Meanwhile he also had a political analysis jaunt with José Sócrates on RTP's Telejornal.
Read more about this topic: Pedro Santana Lopes
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