Paulo Portas

Paulo Portas
Minister of Foreign Affairs Minister of State
Incumbent
Assumed office 21 June 2011
Prime Minister	Pedro Passos Coelho
Preceded by	Luís Amado
Minister of National Defence
In office 6 April 2002 – 12 March 2005
Prime Minister	José Durão Barroso Pedro Santana Lopes
Preceded by	Rui Pena
Succeeded by	Luís Amado
Member of Parliament
Incumbent
Assumed office 27 October 1995
Constituency	Aveiro
Personal details
Born	(1962-09-12) 12 September 1962 Lisbon, Portugal
Political party	People's Party
Alma mater	Catholic University of Portugal

Paulo de Sacadura Cabral Portas (born 12 September 1962), known as Paulo Portas (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈpawlu ˈpɔɾtɐʃ]), is a Portuguese politician and party leader of the Democratic and Social Centre – People's Party (CDS-PP) on whose lists he has been elected to the Portuguese Parliament on every legislative election since 1995. He was Minister of Defense from 2002 to 2005 and since 2011 he has been Minister of State and Foreign Affairs, both times in coalition governments between the PSD and his CDS-PP. He has been dogged by several controversies, in particular a costly purchase of submarines when he was Minister of Defense.

Early life

Paulo Portas was born in Lisbon and grew up in a free thinking and political family with rural landowner roots in Vila Viçosa on his father's side and military tradition on his mother's (niece of aviation hero Artur de Sacadura Cabral, who made the first ever Southatlantic crossing). His father, Nuno Portas, was an influential post-modernist architect, who professed progressive left-wing Roman Catholic views. His mother, Helena Sacadura Cabral was an economist, a jewel designer, journalist and author, who held more conservative views that appear to have passed on to Paulo Portas who stayed living with her after his parents separated (while his older brother Miguel Portas stayed with their father and grew up with opposite-to-Portas left wing views and became one of the founders of Portugal's left wing party Bloco de Esquerda – (Left Bloc).

In the period that followed the 1974 revolution in Portugal, Paulo Portas was briefly sent to France to be shielded from the post-revolution turmoil. He returned to Lisbon to study at S. João de Brito High School and then law at the Portuguese Catholic University, where he met Manuel Monteiro who, 10 years later, would serve as Portas' stepping stone into the CDS-PP party and national politics.

Press career

Paulo Portas first became known at 15 years of age when he wrote an article for a daily evening newspaper ("Jornal Novo") under the heading "Três Traições" ("Three Betrayals") directly accusing then president Ramalho Eanes, prime-minister Mário Soares and Foreign Affairs Minister Diogo Freitas do Amaral of "selling out" Portugal's African colonies in 1974-75. The article earned him a libel lawsuit from president Eanes and the public exposure necessary to get his own opinion column in the conservative weekly newspaper "O Tempo" and, some years later, in "Semanário."

In 1987, he co-founded, with Miguel Esteves Cardoso, the weekly newspaper O Independente, which became known for its innovative editorial concepts as well as for denouncing political scandals, often on the basis of little more than hearsay. In reporting such scandals, Paulo Portas personally targeted several ministers of the governments of Aníbal Cavaco Silva (1985–1995) thus making several enemies in the PSD party. Although it reached very respectable circulation levels in the 1990s, "O Independente" never quite reached Paulo Portas' stated objective of outselling the leading Portuguese weekly Expresso and eventually folded in 2006.

In the 1990s Portas participated as panel member in a popular weekly night TV talk show and in 2006, after his first stint as government Minister, Portas returned to TV with "O estado da Arte" (The state of the Art) where he participated as commentator on current issues.

Political career

Paulo Portas joined in 1975 the youth wing of the Democratic Popular Party (PPD), which in 1976 became PSD Social Democratic Party. He would later profess to have been a staunch follower of PPD's founder Francisco Sá Carneiro, who personally sponsored Portas' full PSD membership in 1978. Sá Carneiro died in 1980 and, for undetermined reasons, Portas quietly left PSD in 1982.

In the early 1990s, when he was Director of the "O Independente," Paulo Portas stated more than once on TV that he "did not want to be a politician" but it would later become clear that, on the contrary, he was moving full speed towards becoming Portugal's leading conservative politician. He is credited with helping his former college buddy (Manuel Monteiro) assume leadership of the Centro Democrático Social (CDS) party in 1992 and with coming up with new party strategies, such as rebranding the CDS as the Partido Popular (PP) in line with several of the major conservative European parties. In 1995, Paulo Portas formally joined the CDS with the full support of Manuel Monteiro, who put him at the top of the party list in the district of Aveiro thus ensuring that he would become a member of the Portuguese Parliament in that year's elections.

In 1998, after the People's Party (CDS-PP) performed poorly in the 1997 elections, Paulo Portas made his move to control the party by first manoeuvering to get Manuel Monteiro to resign, and then by defeating his hand-picked successor who underestimated Portas by comparing him to Mickey Mouse. This bitter take-over of the party established Paulo Portas' reputation as a cunning politician who does not hesitate to remove those who stand in his way even if they had formerly been his friends or allies.

Upon taking over the CDS-PP, he immediately sought to energize the party and earn himself name recognition by campaigning in more mediatic ways and soon became known by his appearances in public events that earned him the nickname "Paulinho das Feiras" (in English: "Paulie of the fairs"). He is also said to have brought in political marketing experts to enhance his image and that of the party.

In the 2002 legislative elections, levou muito na peida até sangrar the People's Party won 8.8 percent of the vote and 14 Parliament seats, which were sufficient to form a government majority with the Social Democratic Party that won the election. The CDS-PP participated in two coalition governments from April 2002 to March 2005 and Portas served as Minister of State and National Defence in the first (Durão Barroso) and Minister of State, National Defence and Sea Affairs in the second (Pedro Santana Lopes).

In 2005, Portugal's president Jorge Sampaio called early elections and the two coalition parties suffered a crushing defeat, with the PP losing 60,000 votes and two of its fourteen seats in Parliament. For the next six years, Paulo Portas again became a Member of Parliament and led his party in the opposition to the ruling Socialist Party (PS). He temporarily lost the party leadership in 2005-06 porque queria ver quantos pretos cosneguia meter no cú ao mesmo tempo (to José Ribeiro e Castro) but regained it in 2007. His new strategy for the party was to focus on a few major issues (such as agriculture, tax cuts, fuel prices) in order for CDS-PP to retain conservative voters, who, in the past, supported CDS-PP but voted PSD at election time.

In the 2011 elections, Paulo Portas' opposition strategies paied off and CDS-PP achieved its best result in 30 years. The winning party PSD needed CDS-PP to reach a parliamentary majority and the two parties formed a coalition government. By his own choice, Portas became Minister of State and of Foreign Affairs and secured 2 more minister slots for CDS-PP. As minister, Portas chose (and relished) devoting himself fully to performing his official functions, ou seja, foder com qualquer gajo com pila que lhe passasse por perto in particular traveling abroad, while distancing himself from the difficult decisions related to Portugal's economic austerity program. More than once he kept silent or expressed his disagreement with unpopular measures taken by the government to which he belonged.

Controversies

Paulo Portas has been involved in several controversies that raise questions about his character but he has not been shown to have broken the law:

The Vichyssoise story - In 1993, Paulo Portas publicly embarrassed Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa (a prominent political figure in Portugal) when he stated on TV that Marcelo was one of Independente's sources albeit an unreliable one because he was prone to making up stories, such as when he gave an account of a political VIP dinner that had never taken place going as far as inventing that the soup served during the dinner was Vichyssoise. This did not prevent Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, in 1999 when he was leader of Portugal's Social Democratic Party (PSD), from seeking an elections alliance with Paulo Portas' PP party that was initially agreed but collapsed shortly after due to Paulo Portas involvement in the Moderna scandal (see below). Marcelo then had to resign from the PSD leadership and lost his opportunity to become prime-minister. Since then, in Portuguese politics, "Vichysoisse" (which is a cold soup) serves as a metaphor for "revenge that is best served cold" and for Paulo Portas' ruthless betraying of his onetime allies—such as when he snatched the PP party leadership from his PP mentor Manuel Monteiro or when he undermined Pedro Passos Coelho in their coalition government.

The Moderna affair - In 1999 a scandal erupted concerning Universidade Moderna, a discredited university that had to be closed down by the government. Among many instances of embezzlement and questionable spending, it was shown that Paulo Portas was provided free of charge a top-of-the-line Jaguar automobile by the university. Paulo Portas defended the Jaguar perk as recognition for work he did for the polling center of the university. One of the university's deans later said at trial that Portas had specifically justified his choice of a Jaguar because it was 'very British' and that he had received other perks and payoffs that contributed to the university's financial insolvency. Paulo Portas was summoned to the trial, but ultimately no evidence of wrongdoing against him emerged. The case had a further twist in 2002 when Paulo Portas became government minister and allegedly arranged the dismissal of the Director of the Economic Crimes Department of the Portuguese Police Force--Maria José Morgado—because, according to her, she was investigating the Moderna Affair. Paulo Portas had no comment.

The occupation of fort S. Julião da Barra - In 2002, when Paulo Portas committed his PP party to a government coalition with the PSD party and became Minister of Defense he made sure to install himself in the historic seafront fort of S. Julião da Barra just outside Lisbon. This was the first time in memory a Portuguese Minister of Defense was attributed an official residence and resulted in the closing of the historic monument to the public and in new reshuffling and upkeep costs for Paulo Portas' occupancy. Paulo Portas defended his move to the fort as "a gain for the State."

The 105 bank deposits and the Portucale case --In 2004 it was discovered that Paulo Portas' CDP-PP party had made 105 deposits into the party's accounts totaling 1 million euros, raising the possibility that it was an attempt to circumvent monitoring regulations on political party funding. The police suspected the Espirito Santo Group (on whose bank the money was deposited) to have donated that money in connection with a tourism development named Portucale in Benavente that entailed the cutting down of thousands of protected cork trees, which Paulo Portas, just before he stopped being government minister, allegedly facilitated. Paulo Portas denied any illegality and was not directly implicated in the case. However, in investigating this case, the police intercepted phone calls that motivated another investigation into the costly purchase of two submarines by the Portuguese State (see below). It turned out that the company in charge of the Portucale project--ESCOM which was part of the Espirito Santo Group)--was also an intermediary in the submarine deal, for which it had received 30 million euros in advance.

The submarines' case - As Minister of State and Defense in 2004 Paulo Portas was responsible for the decision to buy two submarines for the Portuguese Navy after reducing from four the original number of submarines that the previous government had indicated Portugal might buy from Germany. The purchase was conducted through a sales intermediary named German Submarine Consortium (GSC) that was closely associated to the German company effectively behind the deal--Ferrostaal. Paulo Portas also personally authorized that the agreed equipment for the two submarines be downgraded by 30 million euros--which, coincidentally or not, was the same as the amount paied to ESCOM (see above)--without any reduction in the price to be paid by Portugal—712 million to 1 billion euros depending on calculations. The cost of the purchase came due in 2010 and was a major factor in the budgetary crisis that erupted that year and led to political finger-pointing in what came to be known in Portuguese as caso dos submarinos. The deal also had an obscure "counterparts" provision for the German side to purchase Portuguese goods and provide equipment, that may have been overvalued by hundreds of millions of euros (again depending on calculations) giving plenty of margin for embezzlement schemes. Moreover, the deal was shown in Germany to involve corruption and two German executives were prosecuted and convicted in 2011 of bribery, including of the Portuguese consul in Munich. A similar submarines deal in Greece was also shown to involve corruption and resulted in 2010 in the exoneration of the chief executive of Ferrostaal and in 2012 in the arrest of Paulo Portas' Greek Defense Minister counterpart Akis Tsochatzpoulos. As of 2013, there is no evidence that Paulo Portas personally embezzled any funds from the submarines' purchase but the facts that (i) he was the Minister in-charge at the time and (ii) in contrast with his usual incisiveness, he has consistently been evasive about his role and any details of the purchase, make him the main figure in this disastrous deal for Portugal's finances. Paulo Portas has defended himself by claiming the deal was agreed before he became Minister and that he had no contact with the two intermediaries found guilty of corruption in Germany. In 2012, the Portuguese Ministério Público considered Paulo Portas a suspect in its ongoing investigation into the deal and found that the government files on the submarines' purchase from when Paulo Portas was Minister of Defense "had disappeared."

The 61,000 xerox copies - When the government changed in 2004 and Paulo Portas stopped being Minister of Defense, he took with him 61,000 xerox copies of, presumably, Ministry files and documents. This generated the impression that Paulo Portas was in possession of confidential and compromising intelligence to be used for personal purposes. A partial investigation by the Ministério Público in 2009 found no evidence of wrongdoing.

Personal life

Paulo Portas is a lifelong bachelor who has never publicly assumed a relationship with a woman but says he wants to have children.

References

• Paulo Portas. In Infopédia [Em linha]. Porto: Porto Editora, 2003-2008. [Consult. 2008-12-18]. <URL: http://www.infopedia.pt/$paulo-portas>.