Pedro Santana Lopes

Pedro Santana Lopes   ( lawyer,  politician)
Born	29 June 1956  Lisbon,  Portugal
Nationality	Portuguese
Alma mater	University of Lisbon
Children	•  With Maria Isabel: •  Gonçalo Nuno •  With Maria Teresa: •  Duarte Nuno José Maria •  With Maria de Fátima: •  Carolina Maria Diogo Maria
Spouse	Maria Isabel Marques Dias
Interests	Casa Pia
Party	Social Democratic Party (Portugal)
Attended the 2004 Bilderberg meeting as successor of José Manuel Durão Barroso, a month before being selected prime minister of Portugal. He might have been found wanting: less than a year later, President and Bilderberger Jorge Sampaio called out new elections, citing "government instability", leading to the government of Bilderberger José Sócrates.  Prime Minister of Portugal In office 17 July 2004 - 12 March 2005 Preceded by José Manuel Barroso Succeeded by Jose Socrates  Mayor of Lisbon In office 14 March 2005 - 28 October 2005  Mayor of Lisbon In office 23 January 2002 - 17 July 2004  President of the Social Democratic Party (Portugal) In office 12 November 2004 - 8 April 2005  President of Sporting Lisbon In office 2 June 1995 - 11 April 1996  Chairman of the Lisbon Holy House of Mercy In office 14 September 2011 - 20 October 2017

Pedro Miguel de Santana Lopes is a Portuguese lawyer and politician. He attended the 2004 Bilderberg meeting as successor of José Manuel Durão Barroso, a month before being selected prime minister of Portugal. He might have been found wanting: less than a year later, President and Bilderberger Jorge Sampaio called out new elections, citing "government instability", leading to the government of Bilderberger José Sócrates.

Education

Pedro Santana Lopes was born in Campo Grande, Lisbon. His father was a company administrator, his mother could trace her family to the aristocracy. He took a law degree from the University of Lisbon , where he was the leader of the Student Union, becoming a lawyer. He studied political science in Germany for one year, as a researcher at the Institute of European law and the Research Institute for Political Science and European affairs of the University of Cologne. This was at a time when German foundations and grants were used as fronts for getting control over Portugal.

Career

He joined the Social Democratic Party (PSD) in 1976. In 1979, he became a legal advisor to Prime Minister Francisco Sá Carneiro. He became a deputy to the Assembly of the Republic in 1980, at the age of 24.

In 1986, he became the 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 1990, Cavaco Silva appointed him to the government post of Secretary of State for Culture. He left the office in 1994, in disagreement with Cavaco, and returned to law practice.

After a failed attempt to become party leader, Santana Lopes was elected mayor of the port city of Figueira da Foz in December 1997. In December 2001, he surprisingly won the municipal elections of Lisbon and became the mayor of the capital.

When José Manuel Barroso was selected as President of the European Commission, Pedro Santana Lopes became unelected Prime Minister, governing from 17 July 2004 to 12 March 2005. A few days earlier, Lopes became president of the party (PSD). He was previously a deputy in the party presidency and Barroso's "crown prince", although the relationship recently had cooled.

According to the Bilderberg organ the Economist, president Sampaio "urged Mr Santana Lopes to press ahead with the reforms Mr Barroso left unfinished, and to sustain fiscal rigour in the face of a soaring budget deficit." Both the BBC and the Economist were negative to him becoming prime minister.

Already in November 2004, President Jorge Sampaio dissolved parliament prematurely and called early new elections. Santana Lopes said he disagreed with the president's decision as his coalition holds a majority in parliament. The elections were held on February 20, 2005 and in which the Partido Socialista (PS) with its leader José Sócrates received an absolute majority. Therefore, on March 12, 2005, Sócrates took over the post of Prime Minister.

He was often noticed in the gossip press because of his role as a jetset womanizer frequenting nightclubs. In 1995/1996 he was president of Sporting Lisbon football club.

Sampaio was mentioned in the Casa Pia VIPaedophile affair, exposed in 2002, "after a newspaper reported he had been named in a letter to police which investigators later said they had discounted."

After a disappointing result in the 2017 local elections, in which the PSD won only 30% of the vote, the PSD chairman Pedro Passos Coelho announced that he would not run for a fifth term as chairman. After that, both Rui Rio and Pedro Santana Lopes announced their candidacy. After a long internal election campaign, Rui Rio was elected with 54.15% of the vote, against 45.85% for Santana Lopes. Santana Lopes then resigned from the PSD and founded the liberal party Aliança. He was elected as its chairman until, surprisingly, he announced a short speech and his immediate resignation from the party for the second party congress on September 26, 2020. The party dissolved in 2025.

In May 2021, before the 2021 municipal election, he also surprisingly announced his renewed candidacy for the mayoralty of Figueira da Foz in May 2021, where he had resided since May 2021. Supported by the independent citizens' list Figueira A Primeira, he stood for election as an independent candidate and in the end was able to win the election narrowly ahead of the PS, becoming mayor of Figueira da Foz for the second time.

In 2023 he announced he might be running for the 2026 presidential election.

 

Event Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/2004	3 June 2004	6 June 2004	Italy Stresa	The 52nd such meeting. 126 recorded guests

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