Fernando de Carvalho Ruas (born 15 January 1949) is a Portuguese economist and politician from the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

. He is currently the Mayor of

Viseu Viseu () is a city and municipality in the Centro Region of Portugal and the capital of the Viseu District, district of the same name, with a population of 100,105 inhabitants in the entire municipality, and center of the Viseu Dão Lafões Interm ...

, since

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

. He was also Mayor of Viseu between

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

and

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

Early life

Fernando de Carvalho Ruas was born on 15 January 1949, in the Farminhão

Parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

(since 2013, Union of Parishes of Boa Aldeia, Farminhão and Torredeita), in the city of

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

. He is the youngest of 12 children (6 boys and 6 girls). He has a degree in economics from the faculty of economics of the

University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; , ) is a Public university, public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537. The university ...

(1978). He was a secondary school teacher between 1973 and 1982. That year he became Principal Advisor for

Public administration Public administration, or public policy and administration refers to "the management of public programs", or the "translation of politics into the reality that citizens see every day",Kettl, Donald and James Fessler. 2009. ''The Politics of the ...

, having become, in 1986, a member of the

Social Security Welfare spending is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social insurance ...

Board of Viseu.

Political career

He was Mayor of Viseu between

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

and

for the PPD/PSD, having been succeeded by António Almeida Henriques. He was also President of ANMP - National Association of Portuguese Municipalities (2002 to 2013). This role made him the ANMP representative on the Council of European Cities and Regions. He was President of the District Assembly of the PSD of Viseu from 1990 to 2013 and President of the board of directors of the Municipal Water and Sanitation Services of Viseu from 1990 to 2013. He was a

member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

between

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

and

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

. He was a member of the Assembly of the Republic in the 14th legislature, in

, as lead candidate for the Viseu electoral circle. He was a member of Parliament between October 25, 2019, and October 3, 2021, when he resigned to run for the Viseu mayorship in the 2021 local elections. He was also President of the PSD/

from 1983 to 1987, vice-president of the PSD National Congress from 1999 to 2007 and vice-president of the PSD/

Viseu District The Districts of Portugal, District of Viseu ( ) is located in the Central Inland of Portugal, the District Capital is the city of Viseu. Municipalities The district is composed by 24 municipalities: * Armamar Municipality, Armamar * Carregal d ...

Assembly from 1997 to 1999. He currently holds the position of President of the District Assembly of PSD (since 2005) and was President of the PSD National Congress from 2010 to 2018. He was a founding member of the

Committee of the Regions The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) is the European Union's (EU) assembly of local and regional representatives that provides sub-national authorities (i.e. regions, counties, provinces, municipalities and cities) with a direct voice w ...

in 1994, and served until 2013. He was a member of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...

from 2001 to 2004. He was President of the Permanent Cabinet of the Portuguese-Spanish Association of Municipalities 'A route to Europe' between 1999 and 2000, Member of the Executive Cabinet of the World Council of United Cities and Local Governments between 2006 and 2013, and President of the Foral

CPLP The Community of Portuguese Language Countries (; : CPLP), also known as the Lusophone Commonwealth or Lusophone Community (), is an international organization and political association of Lusophone nations across four continents, where Portug ...

– Forum of Local Authorities of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries – between 2009 and 2013.

Personal life

He is married, has two children and four grandchildren.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruas, Fernando 1949 births Living people 21st-century Portuguese economists Social Democratic Party (Portugal) politicians