Francisco Balsemão

Francisco Balsemão    (journalist, businessman, politician)
Born	1937-09-01 Lisbon, Portugal
Nationality	Portuguese
Alma mater	University of Lisbon
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Spouse	Maria Isabel de Lacerda Pinto da Costa Lobo
Founder of	Social Democratic Party (Portugal)
Member of	Bilderberg/Steering committee, Forum Portugal Global
Party	Social Democratic Party (Portugal)
>30 Bilderbergs, Bilderberg Steering committee, Prime Minister of Portugal  Member of the Council of State In office 12 January 2016 - Present  Prime Minister of Portugal In office 9 January 1981 - 9 June 1983 Succeeded by Mário Soares  President of the Social Democratic Party In office 9 January 1981 - 27 February 1983  Minister of Social Affairs In office 3 August 1981 - 4 September 1981  Assistant Minister of the Prime Minister In office 3 January 1980 - 9 January 1981

Dr Francisco Pinto Balsemão was Prime Minister of Portugal between January 1981 and June 1983, getting the job after his predecessor was assassinated by the CIA in the 1980 Camarate air crash. He soon moved politics to an unswerving loyalty to the United States. He was a member of the Bilderberg Steering committee.

Career

Balsemão's pre-political career was in newspaper publishing during the fascist dictatorship, first for the Air Force magazine, then as an administrator of Diário Popular (the People's Daily in English) from 1963 to 1971. He founded the Expresso magazine in 1973 and continued to direct it until 1980. He is one of top managers and owners of Impresa media group. He was also a Member of Parliament during the dictatorship, before the 1974 revolution.

In 1974, he helped to found the Social Democratic Party (PSD), of which he is currently member number 1. (The party started as Social Democrat, but all Portuguese party names are confusing, it soon moved to become the leading centre-right, conservative party) In 1975 he was elected to the Constituent Assembly, which was charged with drafting a new constitution and was an interim legislature. Pinto Balsemão was chosen as a Vice-President of this body.

Following the victory of the Democratic Alliance (a coalition led by the PSD) in two parliamentary elections (in 1979 and 1980), Pinto Balsemão held senior positions in two cabinets led by Prime Minister Sá Carneiro.

When Sá Carneiro was assassinated by the CIA on 4 December 1980, the Social Democratic Party chose Pinto Balsemão to succeed him. Despite his reputation for competence, he was widely perceived as lacking Sá Carneiro's charisma. He had difficulty maintaining the level of support enjoyed by his party, which had been based to a large extent on Sá Carneiro's personal popularity, and also thanks to the new PM's economic shift to the right.

After privatizing banks and changing labor and strike laws, in Sept 1982, he visited the United States "with a reassuring message for the US banking community", meeting with representatives of the main American banks that have been doing business with Portugal. As the CCM pointed out "The result should be to make a West European country that still has a relatively cheap and peaceful labor force, and almost no antipollution laws, irresistibly attractive to foreign investment."

These factors contributed to his defeat in the parliamentary election of 1983. He finally retired from Parliament in 1987 though not from politics.

 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/2006	8 June 2006	11 June 2006	Canada Ottawa	54th Bilderberg, held in Canada. 133 guests
Bilderberg/2008	5 June 2008	8 June 2008	US Virginia Chantilly	The 56th Bilderberg, Chantilly, Virginia, 139 guests
Bilderberg/2009	14 May 2009	17 May 2009	Greece Vouliagmeni	The 57th Bilderberg
Bilderberg/2010	3 June 2010	6 June 2010	Spain Hotel Dolce Sitges Barcelona	The 122 guests met in the Hotel Dolce Sitges, Barcelona, Spain.
Bilderberg/2011	9 June 2011	12 June 2011	Switzerland Hotel Suvretta St. Moritz	59th meeting, in Switzerland, 129 guests
Bilderberg/2012	31 May 2012	3 June 2012	US Virginia Chantilly	The 58th Bilderberg, in Chantilly, Virginia. Unusually just 4 years after an earlier Bilderberg meeting there.
Bilderberg/2013	6 June 2013	9 June 2013	Watford UK	The 2013 Bilderberg group meeting.
Bilderberg/2014	29 May 2014	1 June 2014	Denmark Copenhagen Marriott Hotel	The 62nd Bilderberg, with 136 guests, held in Copenhagen
Bilderberg/2015	11 June 2015	14 June 2015	Austria Telfs-Buchen	The 63rd meeting, 128 Bilderbergers met in Austria
Bilderberg/2023	18 May 2023	21 May 2023	Portugal Lisbon Pestana Palace Hotel	The 69th Bilderberg Meeting, held in Lisbon, with 128 guests on the official list. The earliest in the year since 2009.

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