Francisco Pinto Balsemão


Francisco José Pereira Pinto Balsemão, is a Portuguese businessman, former journalist and retired politician, who served as Prime Minister of Portugal, from 1981 to 1983.

Background

He is the son of Henrique Patrício de Balsemão and wife Maria Adelaide van Zeller de Castro Pereira.

Career

Being a licentiate in Law from the University of Lisbon, Pinto Balsemão's pre-political career was in newspaper publishing. After working as a journalist and then as an administrator of Diário Popular from 1963 to 1971, he founded the Expresso magazine in 1973 and continued to direct it until 1980. He is one of top managers and owners of Impresa media group.
Pinto Balsemão was Member of parliament before the revolution, when, together with Francisco de Sá Carneiro, Joaquim Magalhães Mota, Carlos Mota Pinto, João Bosco Mota Amaral, Alberto João Jardim, António Barbosa de Melo and António Marques Mendes, he helped to found the Social Democratic Party, of which he is currently member number 1. In 1975 he was elected to the Constituent Assembly, which was charged with drafting a new constitution and served as an interim legislature. Pinto Balsemão was chosen as a Vice-President of this body.
Following the victory of the Democratic Alliance in two parliamentary elections, Pinto Balsemão held senior positions in two cabinets led by Prime Minister Sá Carneiro.
When Sá Carneiro was killed in an air accident on 4 December 1980, the Social Democratic Party chose Pinto Balsemão to succeed him. Despite his reputation for competence, he was widely perceived as lacking Sá Carneiro's charisma. He had difficulty maintaining the level of support enjoyed by his party, which had been based to a large extent on Sá Carneiro's personal popularity. He also had to cope with friction within the Democratic Alliance, and found the Democratic and Social Centre leader, Diogo Freitas do Amaral, a difficult ally. These factors contributed to his defeat in the parliamentary election of 1983. He finally retired from Parliament in 1987 though not from politics.
Pinto Balsemão currently serves as Chairman of the European Publishers Council and as chief executive officer of Grupo Impresa in Portugal. He was the founder on 6 October 1992 of Sociedade Independente de Comunicação, the first Portuguese private television network.
He is also a member of Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group, and as such has attracted some controversy. He participated in more than 30 Bilderberg-Conferences since 1981.
He is also a Member of the Portuguese Council of State, elected by the Assembly of the Republic and chosen by the current President of the Republic his fellow party colleague and former president of the Social Democratic Party Aníbal Cavaco Silva.

Family

He married firstly and divorced Maria Isabel de Lacerda Pinto da Costa Lobo, daughter of Manuel da Costa Lobo Cardoso, Director-General of the Banco de Angola, and wife Maria Amélia de Lacerda Rebelo Pinto, married secondly to José da Franca de Horta Machado Guedes Leitão Cruz, without issue, and had two children:
He married secondly Maria Mercedes Aliu Presas, of Spanish descent, and had two children:
Out of wedlock he had a son by Isabel Maria Supico Pinto, second wife without issue of Vasco Maria Vasques da Cunha d' Eça da Costa e Almeida, 3rd Viscount of Maiorca, natural daughter of Minister Clotário Luís Supico Ribeiro Pinto, by actress Maria Adelaide da Silva Lalande, wife of actor Ribeirinho: