Zita Maria de Seabra Roseiro (born 25 May 1949) is a

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

and publisher.

Politics

Zita Seabra joined 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 ...

in 1966, before she was eighteen years old and was controller of the UEC (in Portuguese: ''União dos Estudantes Comunistas'' - Communist Student Union) before and after the

Carnation Revolution The Carnation Revolution (), code-named Operation Historic Turn (), also known as the 25 April (), was a military coup by military officers that overthrew the Estado Novo government on 25 April 1974 in Portugal. The coup produced major socia ...

. As a member of the Communist Party, she was elected to and served in the Portuguese parliament, representing

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

and Aveiro between 1980 and 1987. She was elected to the Political Commission of the party at its 10th Congress in 1983. In 1982 she was responsible for introducing in parliament for the first time a bill to legalize

abortion Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnan ...

, which failed. She abandoned the Communist Party shortly before the

fall of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of Nationalities, Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. :s: ...

, and became one of the most widely known party dissidents. Due to her criticisms of the party, she was expelled from its Political Committee in 1988, and then

purged In history, religion and political science, a purge is a position removal or execution of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, another, their team leaders, or society as a whole. A group undertaking such an ...

from the party's Central Committee. In 1988 she published the book ''The Name of Things: Reflections During Times of Change'' which went through seven printings by the following year. In 1989 she traveled to

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

to cover its first free elections for the ''

Expresso Expresso may refer to: * Espresso, a coffee beverage * eXpresso, a hosted workspace for Microsoft Office communities * Expresso (Donkey Kong), a character in the ''Donkey Kong Country'' series * ''Expresso'' (newspaper), based in Lisbon, Portug ...

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...

. During the visit, she was struck by the contrast between what she had read about the country in its propaganda as a workers' paradise and what she observed. She was expelled from the party in 1990. After publicly renouncing communism, she joined the center-right

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 ...

(PSD) and rejoined the Assembly of the Republic representing her home district of

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ), officially the City of Coimbra (), is a city and a concelho, municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2021 census was 140,796, in an area of . The fourth-largest agglomerated urban area in Po ...

. She was

Vice-President A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...

of the Parliamentary Group of the Social Democratic Party. She also became opposed to legalized abortion. She would convert to

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. After the establishment of the Portuguese party

Liberal Initiative The Liberal Initiative (, , IL) is a liberal political party in Portugal. Founded in 2017, it is currently led by Miguel Rangel, who is the interim leader since the resignation of Rui Rocha in May 2025. The party has been described as being ...

in 2017, she joined this party.

Arts

With an interest in the

arts The arts or creative arts are a vast range of human practices involving creativity, creative expression, storytelling, and cultural participation. The arts encompass diverse and plural modes of thought, deeds, and existence in an extensive ...

, she directed the National Audio-Visual Bureau, and, in 1993, she became president of the Portuguese Film Institute. From 1994 to 1995, she was the

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

of the Portuguese Institute of Cinematographic and Audiovisual Arts. In the private sector, she has been very active in

publishing Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

. She was

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organization, a ...

of the Quetzal publishing house, administrator and

editorial An editorial, or leading article (UK) or leader (UK), is an article or any other written document, often unsigned, written by the senior editorial people or publisher of a newspaper or magazine, that expresses the publication's opinion about ...

director of Bertrand Publishers, and is currently the President of the Executive Board and Director of the Alêtheia publishing house in Lisbon, which she founded.

Books

*''O Nome das Coisas'' (''The Name of Things''; 1989--not yet translated into English) *''Foi Assim'' (''How it Was''; 2007,Zita Seabra: a história de uma expulsão
''(in Portuguese)''

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life, providing a personal narrative that reflects on the author's experiences, memories, and insights. This genre allows individuals to share thei ...

) available in Kindle Book format from Amazon.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seabra, Zita 1949 births Living people People from Coimbra Portuguese anti-abortion activists Portuguese women activists Portuguese anti-fascists Portuguese Communist Party politicians Social Democratic Party (Portugal) politicians Women members of the Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Converts to Roman Catholicism Members of the Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Portuguese anti-communists Portuguese Roman Catholics