Ana Sofia Antunes (born 1981) 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 who, from 2015 to 2024, held the government position of Secretary of State for the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities. Antunes was born blind.

Early life and education

Ana Sofia Pedroso Lopes Antunes was born in

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

, capital of

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

, in 1981. She grew up in the parish of

Corroios Corroios is a civil parish in the municipality of Seixal in the district of Setúbal, Portugal. It is part of the Lisbon metropolitan area. The population in 2011 was 47,661, in an area of 17.11 km².Seixal Seixal () is a Portugal, Portuguese city and municipality, located in the district of Setúbal District, Setúbal, in the metropolitan area of Lisbon region, Lisbon. Its population includes 184,269 inhabitants (2011), in an area of that includes ...

, south of Lisbon. Antunes was congenitally blind at birth. She obtained a degree in law from the Faculty of Law of the

University of Lisbon The University of Lisbon (ULisboa; pt, Universidade de Lisboa, ) is a public research university in Lisbon, and the largest university in Portugal. It was founded in 2013, from the merger of two previous public universities located in Lisbon, th ...

Career

After an internship, Antunes was admitted to the Portuguese

Bar Association A bar association is a professional association of lawyers as generally organized in countries following the Anglo-American types of jurisprudence. The word bar is derived from the old English/European custom of using a physical railing to separ ...

. After one year with a legal firm, she was invited in 2007 to work at Lisbon City Council as legal advisor to the councillor for mobility, a position she held until 2013. In 2010 she worked on the Lisbon Pedestrian Accessibility Plan. In 2013 she moved to the Lisbon Municipal Mobility and Parking Company (EMEL). Between 2013 and 2015 she held the position of president of the Association of the Blind and Visually Impaired of Portugal (ACAPO). She was also a member of the board of the European Blind Union.

Political career

In the

2015 Portuguese legislative election The 2015 Portuguese legislative election was held on 4 October. All 230 seats of the Assembly of the Republic were in contention. The right-wing coalition Portugal Ahead (PàF), composed of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the People's P ...

Antunes was a candidate on the list of the Portuguese Socialist Party (PS) for

, to become a deputy in the Assembly of the Republic. Nineteenth on the list, it was thought likely that she would be elected, but the PS only succeeded in winning 18 seats. Instead, she was appointed by the prime minister,

António Costa António Luís Santos da Costa GCIH (; born 17 July 1961) is a Portuguese lawyer and politician serving as the 119th and current prime minister of Portugal since 26 November 2015, presiding over the XXI (2015–2019), XXII (2019–2022) and ...

, to be the Secretary of State for the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities. She was elected in the 2019 election but was retained in the position as Secretary of State. In the 2022 election, when the PS won an overall majority, Antunes was 14th on the PS list for Lisbon and was easily elected, as the PS won 21 seats. She was again appointed as Secretary of State for Inclusion. In the March 2024 election, after which the PS ceased to form the government, she was elected to the National Assembly as a PS representative in the Leiria constituency.

Personal life

In December 2018 Antunes had a daughter. Her partner, and the daughter's father, is also blind.

References

External links

Antunes interviewed on UN News
{{DEFAULTSORT:Antunes, Ana Sofia 1981 births Blind politicians Living people Members of the 16th Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) People from Seixal Politicians from Lisbon Portuguese blind people Socialist Party (Portugal) politicians University of Lisbon alumni Women members of the Assembly of the Republic (Portugal)