José Sócrates

His Excellency  José Sócrates  GCIH
Prime Minister of Portugal
Incumbent
Assumed office  12 March 2005
President	Jorge Sampaio Aníbal Cavaco Silva
Deputy	Luís Amado
Preceded by	Pedro Santana Lopes
President of the European Council
In office 1 July 2007 – 1 January 2008
Preceded by	Angela Merkel
Succeeded by	Janez Janša
Minister of the Environment
In office 25 October 1999 – 6 April 2002
Preceded by	Elisa Ferreira
Succeeded by	Arlindo Cunha
Deputy Minister of the Prime Minister
In office 25 November 1997 – 25 October 1999
Preceded by	none
Succeeded by	António José Seguro
Deputy Secretary of State of the Environment Minister
In office 30 October 1995 – 25 November 1997
Preceded by	none
Succeeded by	none
Member of Parliament for Castelo Branco
Incumbent
Assumed office  13 August 1987
Preceded by	Title jointly held
Born	6 September 1957 (1957-09-06) (age 53) Alijó, Portugal
Political party	Socialist Party (1981–present)
Other political affiliations	Social Democratic Party (Before 1981)
Spouse(s)	Sofia da Costa Pinto Fava (Divorced)
Children	José Miguel Eduardo
Residence	Lisbon, Portugal
Alma mater	Upper Institute of Engineering of Coimbra Lusíada University Upper Institute of Engineering of Lisbon Independente University Lisbon University Institute
Religion	Agnosticism

José Sócrates Carvalho Pinto de Sousa, GCIH (Alijó, 6 September 1957), commonly known by his given names José Sócrates (Portuguese pronunciation: [ʒuˈzɛ ˈsɔkɾɐtɨʃ]) is the Prime Minister of Portugal and Secretary-General of the Socialist Party. Sócrates became Prime Minister on 12 March 2005. For the second half of 2007, he acted as the President-in-Office of the Council of the European Union. In addition to these posts, José Sócrates was Portugal's Minister for Youth and Sports and one of the organisers of the UEFA Euro 2004 football championship in Portugal, as well as being a former Environment Minister in the governments of António Guterres.

Biography

Early years

José Sócrates was born in Porto on 6 September 1957, and was registered as a newborn in Vilar de Maçada, Alijó municipality in northeastern Portugal, since the locality was his family ancestral homeland. However, the young José Sócrates lived throughout his childhood and teen years with his father, a divorced building designer, in the city of Covilhã, Cova da Beira subregion in central inland Portugal, in the Centro region. His parents are Fernando Pinto de Sousa (b. Vilar de Maçada, Alijó, 15 November 1926) and wife Maria Adelaide de Carvalho Monteiro (b. Vilar de Maçada, Alijó, 8 October 1931). He has two younger siblings, António, born ca. 1962, and Ana Maria, died in 1988.

Education

José Sócrates studied in Covilhã's basic and secondary schools, until the age of 18. Then, in 1975, he went to Coimbra in order to attend a higher education institution. He earned in 1979 his 4-year bacharelato^[1] degree as a civil technical engineer from the Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Coimbra (established in 1974 and later incorporated into the Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra in 1988). From 1987 to 1993, he attended Universidade Lusíada, a private university in Lisbon, enrolling in law, but dropped out.^[2] In 1994/95, already a well known politician, he briefly attended the Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa where he completed some academic disciplines in order to get a CESE diploma (a complementary diploma to his bacharelato degree because until 1999 the polytechnic institutions did not offer licenciatura degrees), but instead, under circumstances which would provoke a controversy in 2007, he earned in 1996 the licenciatura (licentiate degree) in civil engineering from the Universidade Independente, a private university in Lisbon which was shut down by Portuguese authorities in 2007/2008.^[3] He also has an MBA awarded in 2005 by ISCTE, a public university institute in Lisbon.^[4].

Political career

José Sócrates was one of the founders of JSD (the youth branch of PSD - Portuguese Social Democratic Party) before changing his political affiliation and apply for membership in the PS - Portuguese Socialist Party. He has been a member of the Socialist Party since 1981. José Sócrates served as a technical engineer for the Covilhã City Council, and has been elected a member of the Portuguese Parliament since 1987, representing the Castelo Branco electoral district. While serving as the chairperson of the Castelo Branco Federation of the Socialist Party (1983–1996), he was elected to the Party's National Secretariat in 1991. José Sócrates was ousted by the Board of the Guarda Municipality in 1990 and 1991, after being warned several times because of poor quality of construction projects and lack of monitoring of the construction works. Sócrates was threatened with disciplinary action for the wrongdoings in the technical direction of particular works of whose projects he was the author, but despite being ousted from this capacity, he was never penalized. In addition, as a Member of the Parliament, Sócrates was not allowed by law to work as a technical engineer between 1987 and 1991.^[5] From 1989 to 1996, he served as a member of the Covilhã Municipal Assembly. He served as spokesperson on environmental affairs for the Socialist Party from 1991 to 1995. In 1995, he entered government as secretary of state for Environment in the first government of António Guterres. Two years later, Sócrates became Minister for Youth and Sports and was one of the organizers of the EURO 2004 cup in Portugal. He became Minister for Environment in Guterres' second government in 1999. Following the elections of 2002 (won by José Manuel Durão Barroso), Sócrates became a member of the opposition in the Portuguese Parliament. Meanwhile he also had a program of political analysis joint with Pedro Santana Lopes on RTP. After the resignation of Ferro Rodrigues as party leader in 2004, he won a bid for the post of secretary-general against Manuel Alegre and João Soares, winning the vote of nearly 80% of party members on 24 September 2004. After the victory of his party in the 2005 Portuguese election, Sócrates was called on 24 February by president Jorge Sampaio to form a new government - the 17^th Constitutional Government (after 1976). After the Portuguese legislative election of 2009, held on 27 September 2009, José Sócrates was elected for a second term as Prime Minister of Portugal. He is also a Member of the Portuguese Council of State as the Prime-Minister.

Personal life

Family and residence

A father of two, Sócrates is divorced from Sofia da Costa Pinto Fava, daughter of José Fava and Clotilde da Costa Pinto, by whom he has two sons, José Miguel (b. 1993) and Eduardo (b. 1995) Fava Pinto de Sousa. Sócrates lives in Lisbon, although he is a registered elector of the municipality of Covilhã, the place where he votes.

Health and well-being

José Sócrates had photos of himself taken during his morning jog at places like the Red Square in Moscow, Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana, Luanda, and Lisbon. In January 2008 a smoking ban entered force in Portugal's public buildings and public transport, but Sócrates was reported to have been smoking in May during a private state flight to Venezuela where he met Hugo Chávez. He has since admitted it was a mistake, apologised and promised to quit smoking. In addition, he claimed he was not aware he was breaking the law when he did so.^[6]

Prime Minister of Portugal

After the Portuguese legislative election of 2005, Sócrates was called on 24 February by president Jorge Sampaio to form a new government. Sócrates and his first government (XVII Governo Constitucional) took office on 12 March 2005.

After the Portuguese legislative election of 2009, held on 27 September 2009, José Sócrates was elected for a second term as Prime Minister of Portugal. The new government was sworn into office on 26 October 2009.

XVII and XVIII Governos Constitucionais (17th and 18th Constitutional Governments)

Major policies

Administrative reforms

The XVII Governo Constitucional government, headed by Prime Minister José Sócrates, tried to create new rules and implement reforms aiming at better efficiency and rationalized resource allocation in the public sector, fighting civil servant overcapacity (excedentários) and reducing bureaucracy for both citizens and companies (e.g.: empresa na hora^[7], PRACE - Programa de Reestruturação da Administração Central do Estado ^[8], and SIMPLEX - Programa de Simplificação Administrativa e Legislativa^[9]), among others. Since the XVII Governo Constitucional government (with José Sócrates as Prime Minister and Teixeira dos Santos as Minister of Finance) Portugal's fiscal policy improved with a steady increase of the number of taxpayers and the growth of the receipt amount from State taxation. However these policies had little effect, and the country's public debt and deficit were both out of control by 2010, along with a record high unemployment rate. João Bilhim directed in 2005 the committee responsible for the Programme for Restructuring the State's Central Administration (PRACE) but was said to be disappointed with the results.^[10] Several reforms and measures implemented in 2006/2007 by the government (XVII Governo Constitucional - headed by Prime Minister José Sócrates), resulted in improved welfare system financial sustainability but reduced income expectations of future pensioners up to 40%.^[11] In addition, economically active people must work for more years before retirement than formerly.^[12] After the Portuguese regionalization referendum of 1998 where the "No" to regionalization of the country into seven regions was victorious, the XVII Governo Constitucional government announced in January 2009^[13] its firm intention of starting again a regionalization process for Portugal. According to this governmental project, mainland Portugal is to be regionalized de jure into five regions with a wide range of administrative autonomy, using the already established NUTS 2 system: Alentejo, Algarve, Centro, Lisbon, and Norte.

Technological plan

One of the government's main policies was the Plano Tecnológico (Technological Plan), aimed to increase Portugal's competitive advantage through the modernization of its economy. The plan consisted of three key areas: knowledge, technology and innovation. The government goal was to modernize the Portuguese economy by concentrating its efforts and investment in these three key areas.^[14] A low-cost Intel-based netbook for use by children announced by Sócrates's government cabinet, named Magalhães (after Fernão de Magalhães) and packaged and assembled for the Portuguese school-age children and the low-to-middle income economy export market by the Portuguese company J.P. Sá Couto, headquartered in Matosinhos, Norte region, was among the government's innovations under the Technological Plan policy. Other governmental efforts regarding the accomplishment of the government's technological plan was the state-support provided to a Portuguese factory of the Germany-based semiconductor company Qimonda AG, in Vila do Conde, Norte region, when the parent company filed a bankruptcy petition with the local court in Munich, Germany, in early 2009. Qimonda Portugal was at the time one of the top Portuguese net exporters of technology.^[15]

Educational reforms

The government allocated more resources for education policy and reorganised the sector aiming more choice and better quality in vocational technical education. Enhanced and improved vocational technical education programs where implemented in 2007 in an effort to revitalize this sector which had been almost discontinued after the Carnation Revolution of 1974. Other education reforms included more financial support for students (in all educational levels), systematic teaching and school evaluation, the compulsory closing of some problematic and unreliable private higher education institutions (like the Independente University and Moderna University) by the Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education, Mariano Gago, and a will to rank and benchmark the higher education institutions through a newly-created state-run agency (the Agência de Acreditação e Avaliação do Ensino Superior). During the XVII Governo Constitucional, the pan-European Bologna Process was fully implemented in Portugal. On the other hand, the government created a policy of certification and equivalence of qualifications for adult people with low levels of formal education who want a 4th, 6th, 9th or 12th grade equivalence without returning to school (for example, through this process, called Novas Oportunidades,^[16][17] adults (18 years old and older) with the 9th grade might be granted an equivalence to the 12th grade after a process ranging from a part-time 3-month programme or a 1 day per week 8-month programme; those who have less than 9th grade have a similar programme to get the 9th grade certification and can then apply to the 12th grade programme). The curricula do not include any classical high school discipline or a traditional examination process. These diplomas are awarded based on vaguely construed life experience. Some critics alleged this policy was an effort to make up the poor national statistical indicators on education, with little impact on the quality of the work force's qualification of Portugal in the European Union context.^[18][19][20]

Transportation developments

Prime Minister José Sócrates and his government team supported the decision of building new transportation infranstructure such as a new airport for Lisbon and a TGV network. For months the government of Prime Minister José Sócrates insisted the country's only option for a new airport was in the Ota region north of Lisbon. But a powerful lobby, headed by local business honchos and given the imprimatur of the Portuguese president Aníbal Cavaco Silva, forced Sócrates's Government into reversal, by bringing an alternative site for the new airport – the Portuguese Air Force's shooting range in Alcochete south of Lisbon. A study commissioned by a group of businesspeople said the Alcochete site would save taxpayers as much as €3bn in construction costs, and would have less of an environmental impact. The government argued that Ota was a key piece of its overall transport strategy, which included highspeed rail lines to Spain, but even so recognized that the project wasn't finalized and that a debate on the pros and cons of both sites would be worthwhile. Then the government commissioned a technical study to the state-run civil engineering laboratory (Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil) comparing both locations one to each other. Following the conclusions of that study, on the 10 January 2008 the Prime Minister José Sócrates announced the option Alcochete as the most rational choice for a new airport for Lisbon.

Other

In 2007, the XVII Governo Constitucional, headed by Prime Minister José Sócrates, legalised abortion in Portugal after a referendum. Voters were being asked to decide whether to make abortion legal in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, if carried out at the woman's request in a registered clinic. Despite the turnout for a referendum being too low (40%; 50% needed) to be legally binding, José Sócrates said: "Our interest is to fight clandestine abortion and we have to produce a law that respects the result of the referendum."^[21] This socialist government cabinet also announced its intention to legalize same-sex marriage at some point during its mandate. Same-sex marriage in Portugal was legalized on May 17, 2010.

Also, in 2009, through the Decree-Law 91/2009, the rights of fathers and mothers were equalled under the law (see also Fathers' rights).

After a sharp increase of the violent crime rate in Portugal during the XVII Governo Constitucional government (2005–2009), the Minister of Internal Administration Rui Pereira announced in February 2009 the expansion of the police force through the recruitment of 2,000 new police officers, 7,000 new state-of-the-art police weapons, 1,000 bulletproof vests, among other measures.^[22]

Presidency of the Council of the European Union

José Sócrates, as Prime Minister of Portugal, presided over the rotative Presidency of the Council of the European Union for the period July-December 2007. [3] In this post, Sócrates and his team focused on the EU-Brazil (1st EU-Brazil summit) and EU-African Union (2007 Africa-EU Summit) relations, as well as in the approval of the Treaty of Lisbon. The Portuguese Parliament voted to ratify the Treaty of Lisbon on 23 April 2008. After the Irish referendum on 12 June 2008, Prime Minister José Sócrates said he saw the Irish "No" to the treaty as a "personal defeat" after it was signed by EU leaders in the Portuguese capital.^[23] A second referendum was held in Ireland in 2009, and the outcome was the approval of the Treaty of Lisbon by all EU member states, including Ireland.

Controversies

Sócrates-Independente affair

In March 2007, Universidade Independente (UnI), a private university in Lisbon, was placed under investigation on alleged irregularities on several matters.

In that same month, Sócrates' licenciatura degree in civil engineering by Universidade Independente was put under enormous public scrutiny.^[3] Journalists found that qualifications awarded did not follow procedure and that four of the five academic disciplines were given in the private university by the same professor, António José Moraes, a socialist government appointee. A fifth academic discipline, "technical English" was given by the Independente's rector. A strong case was built up related to possible false declarations by José Sócrates regarding his university degree, and the way he was awarded this degree in civil engineering.

Some Portuguese news media professionals stated that Sócrates or members of his staff, through phone calls, threatened court action against journalists and tried to stop the reportings on his licenciatura degree awarded by UnI.^[24] On 9 April 2007, Universidade Independente was closed by government officials after an investigation reported several serious irregularities in the running of this private university.

Under heavy pressure, Sócrates provided his version of the facts on Wednesday 11 April 2007 in a live broadcast interview for the RTP 1 TV channel and RDP radio. The Prime Minister stated he was not favoured by the Universidade Independente to obtain the degree, declared he had been the target of "catty accusations", and defended the authenticity of the degree, though admitting he is not a fully chartered civil engineer.^[25] In his official biography at the Portuguese Government's official website Mr Sócrates claimed to have already obtained the coveted qualification of engineer. He later admitted that was a "lapse", and the government website altered his CV, downgrading "civil engineer" to "diploma in civil engineering". In the interest of accuracy, he should have used "licenciado em engenharia civil" instead of "engenheiro". Before he had been granted the degree, he presented himself as an "engineer" when he was solely a "technical engineer". Portuguese Parliament documents with official information on Sócrates personal data were found proving such inconsistencies.^[26] Sócrates and his staff replied to this by stating that it was probably a misunderstanding in the parliamentary services. After having the licenciatura diploma he used the title "engineer" in several official documentation, despite the fact that his unaccredited degree in civil engineering from Universidade Independente was not legally recognized to allow for the use of the title "engineer"; a profession which is regulated in Portugal by the Ordem dos Engenheiros.

José Sócrates was fiercely criticised by members of Portugal's democratic opposition in the Parliament regarding both proved and unproven issues related with this controversy. Nicolau Santos, a television journalist and a director of Expresso newspaper, criticised the controversial series of fait-divers published in Público and claimed that although the extensive coverage of details, Público's investigation lead to "no definitive conclusion" and might be connected with other issues. In the same tone, several other media personalities, like SIC Notícias' journalist Ricardo Costa, also suggested controversially that SONAE corporation, the parent company of Público newspaper, was behind the beginning of the controversy due to a failed takeover bid of SONAE's telecommunications operator over the largest Portuguese telecom - Portugal Telecom.^[27] The complexity of the takeover bid involving the largest Portuguese telecom, prompted State intervention by the Autoridade da Concorrência (The Portuguese Competition Authority).

Investigation

State authorities investigated the affair and archived the file as the suspicions of falsification and irregularities allegedly attributed to José Sócrates turned out to be unfounded. On the other hand, the Universidade Independente was investigated by education state authorities in 2007, which resulted in the compulsory closing of that private university due to lack of academic rigour and teaching quality, along with generalized managerial and financial chaos in the institution.

Wikipedia

On 17 August 2007, a new controversy arose after the discovery that a government computer had been used to remove all the references to the Sócrates-Independente affair from Wikipedia.^[28] The specific government computer is only one among several dozen included in the IP range of the computer services of the state.

Magalhães computer

A low-cost Intel Classmate PC-based netbook for use by children, announced and sponsored by Sócrates' cabinet, named Magalhães (after Fernão de Magalhães), assembled by the Portuguese company J.P. Sá Couto, was at the centre of a controversy on 7 October 2008, when the company was suspected of 5 million euros' tax evasion.^[29] J.P. Sá Couto dismissed all the accusations regarding alleged fiscal fraud within the company.^[30] Other major controversy regarding Magalhães computer were the legal issues about public contracting procedure in the agreement involving the Government and the company J.P. Sá Couto. The case led to an investigation that raised other similar issues involving other governmental agreements and public contracts.^[31]

Use of foreign languages

Sócrates was criticised for his low proficiency in both Spanish and English. An article published in Expresso accused him of blending Portuguese and Spanish expressions with a Spanish accent in a official meeting in Madrid, instead of speaking his mother tongue.^[32]

Freeport outlet controversy

Since 2005, and, especially again in 2009, it was suggested by some Portuguese and British media that José Sócrates allegedly waived environmental restrictions, following intervention by one of his uncles and a cousin, to grant the British company Freeport a licence to build the Alcochete mall, a gigantic emporium near the Tagus river, developed in part on protected land outside Lisbon in 2002, when he was Minister for Environment of the PM António Guterres cabinet.^[33][34] Portuguese authorities have meanwhile insisted José Sócrates was not under investigation, nor was he a suspect, while UK's Serious Fraud Office refused to confirm the veracity of reports emanating in Portugal. José Sócrates also stated the Freeport project was in due compliance with all legal requirements at the time.^[35]

In a DVD held by the British police and released in March 2009 by the Portuguese media, Charles Smith, a consultant hired to handle the licensing of the Freeport of Alcochete, clearly stated that José Sócrates "was corrupt" and that he received, through a cousin, money to give the green light to the project for the "outlet". The recording revealed by TVI is only part of a conversation of 20 minutes that alongside Charles Smith also included John Cabral, an official of the consultant, and Alan Perkins, director of Freeport. It was the latter who, without knowledge of the other two, has recorded the event, where Smith and Cabral were questioned about the money that left the company to be used for the payment of "gloves" to the current Prime Minister. Charles Smith is one of two defendants in the case Freeport, commercial space on the process of Freeport Alcochete, related to alleged suspicions of corruption in the amendment to the Special Protection Area of the Tagus estuary (ZPET) decided three days before the elections of 2002, through a decree-law, when José Sócrates was Minister of Environment.

The conversation now revealed took place in 2006 with the aim of explaining the large outgoing amounts of money from the company's headquarters in London at the time of approval of the project. According to some sources contacted in London by TVI, José Sócrates remains the main suspect of British police. The British police are now set to send to the Portuguese authorities the 25 volumes of all research done in this process in England. The Serious Fraud Office, which investigates major financial fraud in Britain, has seen its activity limited due to the lack cooperation of the Portuguese authorities in investigating the case. The first official meeting took place only on November 17, 2008 in The Hague, the headquarters of Eurojust, a body which is designed to facilitate judicial cooperation in the EU. The judge Cândida Almeida, director of DCIAP (Central Department for investigation and prosecution), which coordinates the department's prosecutor who investigates the case, refused a joint research proposal by the English. Then have taken note of the DVD. The prosecutor dropped the evidence, arguing that it was not in Portuguese law.^[36]

The Eurojust tried to distance itself from the scandal involving its head, José da Mota, Portuguese, who allegedly put pressure on prosecutors in order to stop a corruption probe involving Portuguese Prime Minister José Sócrates. Two magistrates dealing with the so-called Freeport affair accused José Mota of having tried to persuade them to side-line the investigation at the request of the Portuguese premier and the minister of justice. The premier and Mr Mota's relationship goes back to the late nineties, when they worked in the same government as state secretaries for environment and justice respectively. In 2002, when the new EU body was formed (Eurojust), Mr Mota was transferred to Hague as Portugal's representative to Eurojust. He was elected head of the judicial co-operation body in 2007, at a time when the so-called Freeport case had already started in Portugal.^[37]

Face Oculta scandal

Another corruption case involving Sócrates is the Face Oculta scandal. On 28 October 2009 the police began investigating a business group headquartered in Ovar. Armando Vara, one of the suspects, is reported to have had "talks" with Sócrates. He denies any involvement, claiming he was only talking to a friend.^[38]

References and notes

External links

• (Portuguese) Portuguese government website - Official web site
• (English) Portuguese government website - Official web site

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