# António José Seguro

António José Martins Seguro (born 11 March 1962) is a Portuguese politician for the Socialist Party (PS). Seguro was Secretary General of the PS from 2011 until September 2014, and he was the leader of the largest opposition party in the Portuguese Parliament.

## Early life and education

Seguro was born on 11 March 1962 in Penamacor. He entered politics at a very young age and became a member of the Portuguese Socialist Party (PS) as a youth. He attended the 1st cycle program in business organization and management at the ISCTE – Lisbon University Institute, but he did not graduate. Seguro has a degree in international relations awarded later by the Autonomous University of Lisbon.

## Career

Seguro became involved in political activities from a very young age, always linked to the Socialist Party (PS). He was successively secretary general of Socialist Youth, president of the National Youth Council and chairman of the Youth Forum of the European Communities. He was first elected to the Portuguese Parliament in 1991.
In 1995, the Socialist Party won the parliamentary elections, leaving the leader António Guterres to form a government. Seguro initially was Secretary of State for Youth and, starting in 1997, assistant secretary of State's prime minister. He also played the role of coordinator of the Standing Committee of the Portuguese Socialist Party and president of the Municipal Assembly of Penamacor.
In 1999, Seguro was elected as a Member of the European Parliament, serving between July 1999 and July 2001. In these two years serving in the European Parliament, he was an effective member of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs (in these functions he was co-author of the Report on the Treaty of Nice and the Future of the European Union) and a substitute for the Commission for Employment and Social Affairs. He was also president of the Delegation for Relations with Central America and Mexico, vice president of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament and president of the Portuguese Socialist delegation.
Seguro resigned as an MEP in 2001 to serve as Minister in the Cabinet of the Prime Minister, again under António Guterres. In 2002, he returned to the Assembly of the Republic, serving as the Socialist Parliamentary leader from 2004 to 2005. He was also appointed member of the National Secretariat of the Socialist Party. He accumulated these positions with membership in the Municipal Assembly of Gouveia after being elected in the 2001 local elections.

### Secretary–general of the Socialist Party (2011–2014)

After Prime Minister José Sócrates resigned as PS General Secretary on the election night of 5 June 2011, having lost the general election by a margin higher than expected, Seguro was elected leader of the party on 23 July 2011, winning 68% of the vote against his challenger, Francisco Assis, who got 32%.
As Secretary-general, Seguro decided to abstain in the 2012 State Budget proposed by the Passos Coelho government, citing his decision as a "violent, but constructive abstention", a decision that ended up attracting criticism from inside the PS.
The Socialist Party managed to achieve one of its best results ever in the 2013 local elections and won the 2014 European Parliament election with Francisco Assis as the main candidate, although by a narrow margin, which motivated the Mayor of Lisbon António Costa to run for the party leadership. The party decided to organize primaries open to the party's supporters in 2014, in which Costa defeated Seguro by a landslide. Seguro resigned from the leadership the same day, leaving Costa as Secretary-general.

## Electoral history
### Legislative Elections

| Year | Party | Constituency | Position | # | Votes | % | +/- | Status | Notes |
| 1985 | PS | Lisbon | ? (out of 56) | 4th | 255,030 | 19.80 / 100.00 | 15.95 | Not Elected | Later joined parliament as an MP. |
| 1991 | PS | Porto | 9 (out of 37) | 2nd | 313,893 | 32.92 / 100.00 | 6.19 | Elected | |
| 1995 | PS | Guarda | 1 (out of 4) | 1st | 49,498 | 43.65 / 100.00 | 16.88 | Elected | |
| 2002 | PS | Lisbon | 7 (out of 48) | 1st | 440,790 | 38.66 / 100 | 4.04 | Elected | Elected president of the Socialist parliamentary group in 2004. |
| 2005 | PS | Braga | 1 (out of 18) | 1st | 218,665 | 45.44 / 100.00 | 8.01 | Elected | |
| 2009 | PS | Braga | 1 (out of 19) | 1st | 207,695 | 41.73 / 100.00 | 3.71 | Elected | |
| 2011 | PS | Braga | 1 (out of 19) | 2nd | 159,477 | 32.85 / 100.00 | 8.88 | Elected | Elected Secretary-general of the Socialist Party in 2011. |

### PS leadership election, 2011

Ballot: 22 and 23 July 2011 :
| Candidate | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | António José Seguro | 23,903 | 68.0 |
| | Francisco Assis | 11,257 | 32.0 |
| Blank/Invalid ballots | Blank/Invalid ballots | 367 | – |
| Turnout | Turnout | 35,527 | |
| Source: Diretas 2011 ||||

### PS leadership election, 2013

Ballot: 13 April 2013 :
| Candidate | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | António José Seguro | 24,843 | 96.5 |
| | Aires Pedro | 892 | 3.5 |
| Blank/Invalid ballots | Blank/Invalid ballots | 990 | – |
| Turnout | Turnout | 26,725 | 62.10 |
| Source: Diretas 2013 ||||

### PS Primary election, 2014

Ballot: 28 September 2014 :
| Candidate | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | António Costa | 120,188 | 67.8 |
| | António José Seguro | 55,928 | 31.5 |
| Blank/Invalid ballots | Blank/Invalid ballots | 1,234 | 0.7 |
| Turnout | Turnout | 177,350 | 70.71 |
| Source: Resultados ||||