Adolfo Mesquita Nunes
Adolfo Mesquita Nunes | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Secretary of State for Tourism | |
| In office 1 February 2013 – 26 November 2015 | |
| Prime Minister | Pedro Passos Coelho |
| Preceded by | Cecília Meireles |
| Succeeded by | Ana Mendes Godinho |
| Member of the Assembly of the Republic | |
| In office 20 June 2011 – 1 February 2013 | |
| Constituency | Lisbon |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Adolfo Miguel Baptista Mesquita Nunes 29 November 1977 Lisbon, Portugal |
| Political party | CDS – People's Party |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
Adolfo Miguel Baptista Mesquita Nunes (born 29 November 1977) is a Portuguese jurist and politician with CDS – People's Party. He served as Member of the Assembly of the Republic from 2011 to 2013, and as Secretary of State for Tourism in Pedro Passos Coelho's first and second governments from 2013 to 2015.
Biography
Adolfo Mesquita Nunes was born in Lisbon but raised in Covilhã with his paternal family. He earned his bachelor's degree in Law from the Catholic University of Portugal, and later a master's degree in Legal and Political Sciences in 2008 from the University of Lisbon.
He has been a member of CDS – People's Party since 1997. As a Member of Parliament, he became notable for being the only in the CDS caucus who voted for adoption by same-sex couples in 2012, and for being a member of the parliamentary committee on the international bailout programme in the wake of the 2010–2014 Portuguese financial crisis.[1] As Secretary of State for Tourism under Minister of Economy António Pires de Lima, he promoted deregulation of the sector.[1]
In 2020, Adolfo Mesquita Nunes was put forward as a potential candidate in the 2021 Portuguese presidential election, with the support of some in the moderate right-wing of the Social Democratic Party and the Liberal Initiative, as well as his own party.[2]
Mesquita Nunes publicly came out in an interview to the newspaper Expresso in 2018, saying he had not done so before because he found such an announcement unnecessary; while calling it as a private matter, he also said he had never made any attempt to conceal it, citing an incident during the campaign for the 2017 local elections in which one of his political campaign billboards in Covilhã was spray painted with the word "gay" and he specifically asked for it not to be taken down as it wasn't calumnious.[3] Mesquita Nunes became the first person in a major party leadership position to come out in Portugal, something that infrequently happens among Portuguese politicians.[4]
References
- ^ a b Garrido, Helena (2 December 2016). "Quem é Adolfo Mesquita Nunes" [Who is Adolfo Mesquita Nunes]. Eco (in Portuguese). Retrieved 24 May 2020.
- ^ Santos Costa, Filipe (18 February 2018). "Presidenciais. Mesquita Nunes encorajado a concorrer contra Marcelo e Ventura" [Presidential election. Mesquita Nunes encouraged to run against Marcelo and Ventura]. Observador (in Portuguese). Retrieved 24 May 2020.
- ^ Santos Costa, Filipe (18 February 2018). "Adolfo Mesquita Nunes: "Acredito no mundo global e vivo muito bem nele"" [Adolfo Mesquita Nunes: “I believe in a globalised world and I am comfortable in it”]. Expresso (in Portuguese). Retrieved 24 May 2020.
- ^ Mozos, José Pedro (13 February 2018). "Os casos de outros políticos que assumiram ser homossexuais" [The case of the other politicians who came out as homosexuals]. Visão (in Portuguese). Retrieved 24 May 2020.