Miguel de Sacadura Cabral Portas (1 May 1958 – 24 April 2012) was a Portuguese politician and 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 ...

for the Left Bloc, part of the

European United Left–Nordic Green Left The Left in the European Parliament (The Left) is a left-wing political group of the European Parliament established in 1995. Prior to January 2021 it was named the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (, GUE/NGL). The group is mainly compos ...

group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic iden ...

. He was a member of the

Committee on Culture and Education The Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) is a committee of the European Parliament. Responsibilities of the committee This committee has focused on the well-being of all members of the human race and the increased opportunities for educat ...

of the European Parliament and a member of the Delegation for relations with the Mashreq countries. Miguel Portas was the older brother of the former Foreign Affairs Minister and former leader of the

right-wing Right-wing politics is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property ...

CDS–PP,

Paulo Portas Paulo de Sacadura Cabral Portas (born 12 September 1962, ) is a Portuguese media and political figure, who has, since the 1990s, been one of Portugal's leading conservative politicians. He was the leader of one of Portugal's right-wing parties, ...

, and a great-nephew of Artur de Sacadura Cabral.

Biography

Miguel Portas received a degree in economics, at School of Economics and Management, in 1986. He worked as a cultural animator in the county of

Ourique Ourique (), officially the Town of Ourique (), is a List of municipalities of Portugal, city in the District of Beja (Portugal), District of Beja in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 5,389, in an area of 663.31 km2. This town is tradition ...

(1984), sociocultural animator and trainer in the

Algarve The Algarve (, , ) is the southernmost NUTS statistical regions of Portugal, NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities (concelho, ''concelhos'' or ''município ...

hills as agents of development (1987). Moving on a career as a journalist, he was director of the cultural magazine "Contraste" (1986) and later he was hired as editor of the weekly journal "Expresso" (1988), where he was the international editor between 1992 and 1994. He also directed the weekly "Já" (1996), he was a reporter for magazine "Vida Mundial" (1998–1999), columnist for "Diário de Notícias" (2000–2006) and the weekly "Sol" (2008–2012). He was co-author and host of two television documentary series, "Indian Ocean" (2000) and "Periplus" (2004), on the Mediterranean. He had three books published: "And the rest is landscape" (2002, chronicles, essays and interviews), "The Labyrinth" (2006 – on Lebanon) and "Periplus" (2009 – dedicated to the Mediterranean). Arrested by Salazarist secret police

PIDE The International and State Defense Police (; PIDE) was a Portuguese security agency that existed during the '' Estado Novo'' regime of António de Oliveira Salazar. Formally, the main roles of the PIDE were the border, immigration and emigrati ...

when he was 15 for participating in the Associative Movement of Students in Secondary Education in Lisbon, he joined the Union of Communist Students of PCP (1973), reaching the Central Committee a year later. He chaired the Association of Students of the School of Economics and coordinated the Inter-Secretariat Meeting of Associations. He left the CFP in 1989, following the first process of party expulsions triggered by

perestroika ''Perestroika'' ( ; rus, перестройка, r=perestrojka, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg, links=no) was a political reform movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s, widely associ ...

. Between 1990 and 1991 he was an adviser to the Mayor of Lisbon on cultural affairs and urban planning. He was a founder of the Platform of the Left, dissolved two years later. In 1994 he created Politics XXI, which grouped members of the Platform of the Left, the MDP and independents from the demonstrations against

tuition fees Tuition payments, usually known as tuition in American English and as tuition fees in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English, are fees charged by education institutions for instruction or other services. Besides public spen ...

higher education Tertiary education (higher education, or post-secondary education) is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank defines tertiary education as including universities, colleges, and vocational schools ...

. Politics XXI was a launching platform for the Left Bloc (founded in 1999 with people from PSR, UDP and independents). For the Left Bloc he was head of the list for European Parliament elections in 1999, obtaining 1.74% of the votes, and candidate for City Council in Lisbon in

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

. He was elected to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

with a 4.92% share and re-elected in

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

, with 10.73%. There he was a member of the Budget Committee and vice chairman of the Special Commission on Financial, Economic and Social matters. Miguel Portas was the son of Nuno Portas, architect, and Helena de Sacadura, economist and journalist; brother of

, politician, half-brother of Catarina Portas, journalist and entrepreneur. He was also great-nephew of the Aviator Sacadura Cabral. He left two sons, André and Frederico Portas. With Ana Maria Isabel Soromenho Gorjão Henriques he also had a son, Frederico de Sacadura Cabral Gorjão Henriques. Portas was diagnosed with

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma, is a malignant tumor that begins in the lung. Lung cancer is caused by genetic damage to the DNA of cells in the airways, often caused by cigarette smoking or inhaling damaging chemicals. Damaged ...

in 2010, and he died of the disease on 24 April 2012.

References

External links

Official site at the European Parliament
{{DEFAULTSORT:Portas, Miguel 1958 births 2012 deaths Politicians from Lisbon Left Bloc MEPs MEPs for Portugal 2004–2009 MEPs for Portugal 2009–2014 Technical University of Lisbon alumni Left Bloc politicians Portuguese political party founders