Deputy to the Assembly of the Republic
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa took which position between Aug 1975 and Sep 1975?
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa Marcelo Nuno Duarte Rebelo de Sousa ( ; born 12 December 1948 ) is a Portuguese politician and academic . He is the 20th and current president of Portugal , since 9 March 2016 . A member of the Social Democratic Party ( though he suspended his party membership for the duration of his presidency ) , Rebelo de Sousa has served as a government minister , parliamentarian in the Assembly of the Portuguese Republic , legal scholar , journalist , political analyst , law professor and pundit gaining him nationwide recognition prior to his election . Early life . Born in Lisbon , he is the eldest son of Baltasar Rebelo de Sousa ( 1921–2001 ) and his wife Maria das Neves Fernandes Duarte ( 1921–2003 ) . He has said that his mother had Jewish ancestry . He is named after his godfather , Marcelo Caetano , the last prime minister of the Estado Novo regime . Rebelo de Sousa is a professor and publicist specialized in constitutional law and administrative law , earning his doctorate at University of Lisbon , where he taught law . Party politics and academic career . Rebelo de Sousa started his career during the Estado Novo as a lawyer , and later as a journalist . He joined the Popular Democratic Party , becoming a Deputy to the Assembly of the Republic . During that time , he helped draft Portugals constitution in 1976 . Later he rose to Adjoint Minister of Prime Minister Francisco Pinto Balsemão . Together with him he was a co-founder , Director and Administrator of the Expresso newspaper , owned by Pinto Balsemão . He was also the founder of Sedes and the founder and President of the Administration Council of another newspaper , Semanário . He started as a political analyst and pundit on TSF radio with his Exams , in which he gave marks ( 0 to 20 ) to the main political players . In 1989 he ran for President of the Municipal Chamber of Lisbon ( Mayor of Lisbon ) but lost to Jorge Sampaio , though he did win a seat as City Councilor ( Vereador ) . In that campaign he took a plunge into the waters of the Tagus River to prove they were not polluted despite claims to the contrary . In other local elections , he also became the President of the Municipal Assembly of Cascais ( 1979–1982 ) and the President of the Municipal Assembly of Celorico de Basto ( 1997–2009 ) . Leader of the PSD , 1996–1999 . Rebelo de Sousa was leader of the Social Democratic Party from 29 March 1996 to 27 May 1999 ( some weeks before his election as party leader , he declared he would not be a leadership candidate , not even if Christ came down to Earth ) . He created a center-right coalition , the Democratic Alliance , with the Peoples Party in 1998 . He became , however , the Vice-President of the European Peoples Party–European Democrats . The coalition did not please large parts of its own party , due to the role the Peoples Party leader , Paulo Portas , had in undermining Aníbal Cavaco Silvas government while director of the weekly O Independente . Rebelo de Sousa resigned after Portas , in a TV interview , described a private talk they had had concerning this matter . Portas claimed Marcelo , as an anonymous source for O Independente , described in great detail a dinner where he was not present , down to the menu ( which included vichyssoise , a cold soup ) ; when Paulo Portas later reneged on the decision of the coalition established between their parties — which was made before that dinner — the term vichyssoise became a reference to that revenge served cold . For these and other inconsistencies , he was called by Manuel Maria Carrilho political gelatin . A speech , in which he condemned the Portuguese habit of expecting a Messiah and a Dom Sebastião , was not well taken . The failure of the coalition led to his public and televised demission . Post-leadership . He had a weekly program of political analysis every Sunday on public TV station RTP after previously having a similar program on the private TV station TVI , where he was introduced as being the wisest and most perspicacious political analyst of current times . His comments covered everything from politics to sports , including his famous presentations and comments on the newest published books , and they were sometimes controversial , some of the comments being seen as personal and political attacks . In his analysis , still in TVI , he often attacked Pedro Santana Lopes , accusing him of being truculent , a cudgeller and resentful , and not having the profile to be a President of the Republic . This animosity remained until after Santana Lopes became Prime Minister , with a particular commentary on his performance finishing with the statement that he was worse than the worst Guterres and that he was making Guterres look better and pushing them to Belém , leading to a response from Santana Lopes Government Speaker Rui Gomes da Silva , who accused him of an involuntary cabal . The president of the network , Miguel Pais do Amaral , asked in a private dinner that Marcelo be more moderate in his attacks , something that Marcelo took as a form of censorship , leading to his exit from the program and the channel . It was after that episode that he was hired by RTP . Partially in consequence of these events , President Jorge Sampaio dissolved the Assembly of the Republic , a move that also meant dismissing the Government at a time when it had a stable coalition majority , and calling for anticipated elections , which led to the defeat of Santana Lopes and the election of the Socialists under José Sócrates . In 2010 , he left RTP and returned to TVI to do the same program that he had before . He was made a Member of the Council of State , by President Aníbal Cavaco Silva , and was sworn in on 6 April 2006 . He was a leading figure on the pro-life side of the 2007 abortion referendum . He even founded a website titled Assim Não ( Not like this ) , which was divulged with a famous introductory video . It became so well known that it was parodied in Saturday Night Live-fashion by famous humour group Gato Fedorento . President of Portugal , 2016–present . On 24 January 2016 , Rebelo de Sousa was elected as President of Portugal in the first round of voting . He stood as an independent , appealing for moderation and cross-party consensus . During his election campaign , he promised to repair political divisions and the hardship of Portugals 2011–14 bailout . Unlike his predecessor , Aníbal Cavaco Silva , he had never previously held a top state position . In March 2020 , Rebelo de Sousa asked parliament to authorize a state of emergency to contain the COVID-19 pandemic ; this marked the first time the country declared a state of emergency nationwide in 46 years of democratic history . In December 2020 , Rebelo de Sousa announced his intention to run for office again in the 2021 Portuguese presidential election . Marcelo was re-elected president in January 2021 , with 60.7% of the votes , the third highest vote margin ever in presidential elections in Portugal since the Carnation Revolution . He was also the first candidate ever to win the vote in all municipalities . Ranging from 51.3% in the Beja District and 72.16% in Madeira . State visits . Rebelo de Sousa , as President of Portugal , has visited the Vatican , Spain , Mozambique , Morocco , Brazil , Switzerland , Cuba , United Kingdom , Greece , United States of America and Angola . The first visit was to the Vatican City to meet the Pope Francis and the Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin . In 2019 , he joined President Emmanuel Macron for the traditional Bastille Day military parade in Paris , which honoured European military cooperation and the European Intervention Initiative that year . Health . On 28 December 2017 , Rebelo de Sousa was admitted at Curry Cabral Hospital , in Lisbon , where he was subjected to a surgery to treat an umbilical hernia . The procedure was performed by , a veteran surgeon who is also a close friend of the President since early childhood . After the surgery , Barroso informed the press that all went well and that Marcelos condition had been known for at least six years , also referring that the surgery was initially due to occur on 4 January 2018 . However , on the morning of 28 December , the President felt abdominal pain , and an examination by his official physician , Daniel Matos , revealed that the hernia was incarcerated and required immediate surgery . On 29 December , the Presidency official website published a clinical report , informing that Marcelo was cheerful and recovering well . Rebelo de Sousa was discharged from hospital on 31 December by 12:45 PM , and left the premises by his own foot , while greeted and applauded by some hospital staff and other patients . He lauded the Portuguese National Health Service , considering it an important conquest of democracy . On 23 June 2018 , Rebelo de Sousa felt indisposed and collapsed after a visit to Bom Jesus do Monte sanctuary in Braga , in a day where temperatures were close to 40 °C . He was transported to the hospital where , after several exams , it was revealed the incident was caused by a sudden drop in blood pressure alongside an acute gastroenteritis . He was discharged from hospital later on the same day and was told to rest for some days . On 8 March 2020 , Rebelo de Sousa suspended all his public agenda and returned to his private home in Cascais , entering a voluntary quarantine period for 14 days after being revealed that a group of students from Felgueiras , who had visited Belém Palace some days before , had also been quarantined after a positive case of COVID-19 was detected in their school . On the next day , Marcelo was tested for the virus and returned a negative result ; he himself showed up on a balcony of his home to announce the result to the reporters waiting on the outside . Despite the quarantine , he didnt suspend his functions and continued working from home . A second test for the virus was made on 17 March , also returning a negative result . He returned to Belém Palace on the next day but maintained social distancing practices , conducting a meeting of the Council of State through videotelephony . Marcelo would only fully resume his public agenda on 23 March 2020 , receiving the Minister of Finance , Mário Centeno , for a meeting at Belém Palace . On 7 April 2020 , Rebelo de Sousa revealed that he had taken a serological test , which returned a negative result , therefore concluding that he had not been exposed to the virus . On 11 January 2021 , Rebelo de Sousa tested positive for COVID-19 ; he was reportedly asymptomatic , and canceled his appointments , opting to remain in self-isolation at Belém Palace . Personal life . On 27 July 1972 , Rebelo de Sousa married Ana Cristina da Gama Caeiro da Mota Veiga in the parish of São Bento do Mato in Évora . The bride , born on 4 June 1950 in the Santos-o-Velho parish of Lisbon , is the daughter of António da Mota Veiga and Maria Emília da Gama Caeiro and current widow without issue of Jorge Manuel Vassalo Sors Lagrifa ( 7 May 1948 – 2 February 2005 ; maternal grandson of Manuel António Vassalo e Silva ) . In the following years , Sousa and Mota Veiga had two children : - Nuno da Mota Veiga Rebelo de Sousa ( b . São Sebastião da Pedreira , Lisbon , 8 August 1973 ) and - Sofia da Mota Veiga Rebelo de Sousa ( b . São Sebastião da Pedreira , Lisbon , 27 September 1976 ) . The couple separated in 1980 but never got divorced , with Sousa citing his Roman Catholic faith as the reason behind his wish to keep up the marital bond . He started dating his former student Rita Amaral Cabral in the 1980s , who at the time was his fellow lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon . They continue to entertain a casual relationship , but live separately . Rebelo de Sousa claims to sleep only four to five hours a night and to read two books a day . He is an avid surfer at Guincho Beach in Cascais , on the Portuguese Riviera , and has stated to be a fan of classical music , especially of Giuseppe Verdi . Honours and awards . National orders . Insignia of Office . - Grand Master of the Honorific Orders of Portugal ( 2016 – present ) Personal orders . - Grand Cross of the Order of Prince Henry ( 9 June 2005 ) - Commander of the Order of Saint James of the Sword ( 9 June 1994 ) Foreign orders . - Recipient of the Order of Agostinho Neto ( 6 March 2019 ) - Grand Star of the Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria ( 18 June 2019 ) - Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold ( 22 October 2018 ) - Grand Cross of the Order of Stara Planina ( 30 January 2019 ) - 1st Class of the Amílcar Cabral Order ( 10 April 2017 ) - Collar of the Order of Merit ( 30 March 2017 ) - Grand Collar of the Order of Boyaca ( 13 November 2017 ) - Grand Cross of the Grand Order of King Tomislav of the Republic of Croatia ( 4 May 2018 ) - Collar of the Order of the Nile ( 21 November 2016 ) - Collar of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana ( 10 April 2019 ) - Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour of the French Republic ( 26 August 2016 ) - Grand Cross of the Order of the Redeemer of Greece ( 21 April 2017 ) - Knight Grand Cross with Cordon of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic ( 29 November 2017 ) - Grand Cross of the National Order of the Ivory Coast ( 2017 ) - Knight ( single order ) of the Order of the Gold Lion of the House of Nassau of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg ( 23 May 2017 ) - Honorary Companion of Honour with Collar of The National Order of Merit of the Republic of Malta ( 15 May 2018 ) - Member Special Class of the Order of Muhammad of the Kingdom of Morocco ( 27 June 2016 ) - Collar of the Order of the Aztec Eagle ( 17 July 2017 ) - Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands ( 10 October 2017 ) - Collar of the National Order of Merit ( Paraguay ) ( 11 May 2017 ) - Grand Cross with diamonds of the Order of the Sun of Peru ( 25 February 2019 ) - Grand Cross of the Order of the Republic of Serbia ( 25 January 2017 ) - Recipient of the Order for Exceptional Merits ( Slovenia ) ( 31 May 2021 ) - Knight of the Collar of the Order of Isabella the Catholic of the Kingdom of Spain ( 25 November 2016 ) - Collar of the Order of Charles III of the Kingdom of Spain ( 13 April 2018 ) - Knight with the Collar of the Order of Pius IX of the Vatican City State ( Vatican , 7 July 2016 ) References . - Costados Alentejanos , II , António Luís de Torres Cordovil Pestana de Vasconcelos , Edição do Author , Évora 2006 , N.º 41 External links . - Marcelo Nuno Duarte Rebelo de Sousas genealogy in a Portuguese genealogical site