Francisco José Pereira de Assis Miranda (born 8 January 1965) is a Portuguese politician who served as 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 ...

(MEP) for the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

. He was part of the

Party of European Socialists The Party of European Socialists (PES) is a Social democracy, social democratic European political party. The PES comprises national-level political parties from all the European Economic Area, European economic area states (EEA) plus the Unit ...

from 2004 to 2009, and again from 2014 until 2019. He is also a former

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

of Amarante, having been in office from

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 ...

to 1995, and member of the Assembly of Republic on two occasions, the first from 1995 to 2004 and the second from 2009 to 2014. Assis was elected a

in the 2024 European election, and is expected to be sworn-in in the upcoming

Tenth European Parliament The tenth European Parliament was elected during the 2024 European Parliament election, 2024 elections and is slated to remain in session until the forthcoming 2029 elections. Major events * 6–9 June 2024: 2024 European Parliament elect ...

Political career

Role in national politics

Assis challenged incumbent António José Seguro for the party leadership in 2011. When the right-wing

coalition government A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an ...

of Prime Minister

Pedro Passos Coelho Pedro Manuel Mamede Passos Coelho (; born 24 July 1964) is a Portuguese people, Portuguese politician and university guest lecturer who was the List of prime ministers of Portugal, 117th prime minister of Portugal, in office from 2011 to 201 ...

lost its absolute majority in parliament as a result of the

2015 Portuguese legislative election The 2015 Portuguese legislative election was held on 4 October. All 230 seats of the Assembly of the Republic (Portugal), Assembly of the Republic were in contention. The right-wing coalition Portugal Ahead (PàF), composed of the Social Democr ...

, Assis condemned what he described as "left-wing fantasies" within his own Socialist Party, describing any attempt at an agreement with the

Portuguese Communist Party The Portuguese Communist Party (, , PCP) is a Communism, communist and Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist List of political parties in Portugal, political party in Portugal. It is one of the strongest List of communist parties, communist par ...

and the Left Bloc as "absurd". On 24 November 2015, Socialist leader

António Costa António Luís Santos da Costa (; born 17 July 1961) is a Portuguese lawyer and politician who has served as President of the European Council since 2024. He previously served as the 118th prime minister of Portugal from 2015 to 2024 and th ...

was appointed as Prime Minister after forming a parliamentary alliance with three left-wing parties. Assis publicly voiced his opposition to the new coalition agreement, which he reaffirmed in the context of the

2017 Portuguese local elections Local elections were held in Portugal on 1 October 2017. The elections consisted of three separate elections in the 308 Portuguese municipalities, the election for the Municipal Chambers, whose winner is automatically elected mayor, similar to f ...

and in the aftermath of the October 2017 Iberian wildfires.

Member of the European Parliament (2014–2019)

Ahead of the 2014 European Parliament election in Portugal, the Socialist Party named Assis at the top of their list. Following elections, he became a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the

Subcommittee on Human Rights The Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI, after the French name ''Sous-commission des droits de l'homme du Parlement européen'') is a subcommittee of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament. It is responsible for issues of human ...

. He was also the chairman of the parliament's delegation for relations with

Mercosur The Southern Common Market (commonly known by abbreviation ''Mercosur'' in Spanish and ''Mercosul'' in Portuguese) is a South American trade bloc established by the Treaty of Asunción in 1991 and Protocol of Ouro Preto in 1994. Its full me ...

. Assis has been a political commentator for television programmes on TV stations ''

SIC Notícias SIC Notícias () is the cable news channel of the Portuguese television network SIC (''Sociedade Independente de Comunicação'') and the second thematic channel of the station. It is available on basic cable and satellite. It replaced CNL (''C ...

'' and ''

TVI 24 Cable News Network Portugal, also known as CNN Portugal and abbreviated as CNN PT, is a Portuguese basic cable and satellite television news channel owned by Media Capital. It was launched on 26 February 2009 as TVI 24, the 24-hour news channe ...

'' and a columnist for the newspaper '' Público''.

Electoral history

Amarante City Council election, 1989

CDS CDS, CDs, Cds, etc. may refer to: Finance * Canadian Depository for Securities, Canadian post-trade financial services company * Certificate of deposit (CDs) * Counterfeit Deterrence System, developed by the Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence ...

, align=left , – , , 3,987 , , 14.3 , , 1 , , ±0 , - , style="background:;", , align="left", CDU , align=left , – , , 1,027 , , 3.7 , , 0 , , ±0 , - , colspan="3" align="left", Blank/Invalid ballots , 902 , , 3.2 , , – , , – , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan="3" align="left", Turnout , 27,973 , , 67.13 , , 7 , , ±0 , - , colspan="7" align=left, Source: Autárquicas 1989

Amarante City Council election, 1993

, - ! colspan="2" , Party ! Candidate ! align="center" style="width: 50px", Votes ! align="center" style="width: 50px", % ! align="center" style="width: 50px", Seats ! align="center" style="width: 50px", +/− , - , style="background:;", , align="left", PS , align=left , Francisco Assis , , 18,732 , , 58.8 , , 5 , , style="color:green;", +1 , - , style="background:;", , align="left", PSD , align=left , João Mota , , 10,638 , , 33.4 , , 2 , , ±0 , - , style="background:;", , align="left", CDS–PP , align=left , – , , 1,296 , , 4.1 , , 0 , , style="color:red;", –1 , - , style="background:;", , align="left", CDU , align=left , – , , 483 , , 1.5 , , 0 , , ±0 , - , colspan="3" align="left", Blank/Invalid ballots , 707 , , 2.2 , , – , , – , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan="3" align="left", Turnout , 31,856 , , 71.52 , , 7 , , ±0 , - , colspan="7" align=left, Source: Autárquicas 1989

Porto City Council election, 2005

, - ! colspan="2" , Party ! Candidate ! align="center" style="width: 50px", Votes ! align="center" style="width: 50px", % ! align="center" style="width: 50px", Seats ! align="center" style="width: 50px", +/− , - , style="background:;", , align="left", PSD/CDS–PP , align=left , Rui Rio , , 63,443 , , 46.2 , , 7 , , style="color:green;", +1 , - , style="background:;", , align="left", PS , align=left , Francisco Assis , , 49,653 , , 36.1 , , 5 , , style="color:red;", –1 , - , style="background:;", , align="left", CDU , align=left , Rui Sá , , 12,311 , , 9.0 , , 1 , , ±0 , - , style="background:;", , align="left", BE , align=left , João Teixeira Lopes , , 5,797 , , 4.2 , , 0 , , ±0 , - , style="background:white;", , colspan="2" align="left", Other parties , 1,756 , , 1.3 , , 0 , , ±0 , - , colspan="3" align="left", Blank/Invalid ballots , 4,420 , , 3.2 , , – , , – , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan="3" align="left", Turnout , 137,380 , , 58.43 , , 13 , , ±0 , - , colspan="7" align=left, Source: Autárquicas 2005

PS leadership election, 2011

, - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 60px", Candidate ! align="center" style="width: 50px", Votes ! align="center" style="width: 50px", % , - , style="background:#f6f;", , align=left , António José Seguro , align=right , 23,903 , align=right , 68.0 , - , style="background:#f6f;", , align=left , Francisco Assis , align=right , 11,257 , align=right , 32.0 , - , colspan=2 align=left , Blank/Invalid ballots , align=right , 367 , align=right , – , - , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Turnout , align=right , 35,527 , align=right , , - , colspan="4" align=left, Source: Diretas 2011

European Parliament election, 2014

, - ! colspan="2" , Party ! Candidate ! Votes ! align="center" style="width: 50px", % ! align="center" style="width: 50px", Seats ! align="center" style="width: 50px", +/− , - , style="background:;", , align="left", PS , align=left , Francisco Assis , , 1,034,249 , , 31.5 , , 8 , , style="color:green;", +1 , - , style="background:;", , align="left", PSD/CDS–PP , align=left ,

Paulo Rangel Paulo Artur dos Santos Castro de Campos Rangel (born 18 February 1968) is a Portuguese jurist and politician of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) who has been Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2024, in the XXIV Constitutional Government, led by ...

, , 910,647 , , 27.7 , , 7 , , style="color:red;", –3 , - , style="background:;", , align="left", CDU , align=left , João Ferreira , , 416,925 , , 12.7 , , 3 , , style="color:green;", +1 , - , style="background:;", , align="left", MPT , align=left , Marinho e Pinto , , 234,788 , , 7.2 , , 2 , , style="color:green;", +2 , - , style="background:;", , align="left", BE , align=left , Marisa Matias , , 149,764 , , 4.6 , , 1 , , style="color:red;", –2 , - , style="background:;", , align="left",

Livre Livre may refer to: Currency * French livre, one of a number of obsolete units of currency of France * Livre tournois, one particular obsolete unit of currency of France * Livre parisis, another particular obsolete unit of currency of France * Fre ...

, align=left , Rui Tavares , , 71,495 , , 2.2 , , 0 , , ''new'' , - , style="background:teal;", , align="left", PAN , align=left , Orlando Figueiredo , , 56,431 , , 1.7 , , 0 , , ''new'' , - , style="background:;", , align="left",

PCTP/MRPP The Portuguese Workers' Communist Party/Re-Organized Movement of the Party of the Proletariat (, PCTP/MRPP) is a Maoist political party in Portugal. History and overview The party was founded in 1970 as the (MRPP), led by Arnaldo de Matos. ...

, align=left , Leopoldo Mesquita , , 54,708 , , 1.7 , , 0 , , ±0 , - , style="background:white;", , colspan="2" align="left", Other parties , 111,765 , , 3.4 , , 0 , , ±0 , - , colspan="3" align="left", Blank/Invalid ballots , 243,681 , , 7.4 , , – , , – , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan="3" align="left", Turnout , 3,284,452 , , 33.67 , , 21 , , style="color:red;", –1 , - , colspan="7" align=left, Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Assis, Francisco 1965 births Living people Mayors of places in Portugal Members of the 7th Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Members of the 8th Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Members of the 9th Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Members of the 11th Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Members of the 12th Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Members of the 16th Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) MEPs for Portugal 2004–2009 MEPs for Portugal 2014–2019 People from Amarante, Portugal Socialist Party (Portugal) MEPs University of Porto alumni MEPs for Portugal 2024–2029