Maria de Lurdes Breu (born 1940) was one of five women in Portugal known as "The Magnificent Five", who were the first women to serve as municipal mayors in the country, after elections in December 1976. She became mayor of Estarreja in the

Aveiro District Aveiro District ( pt, Distrito de Aveiro, or ) is located in the central coastal region of Portugal. The capital of the district is the city of Aveiro, which also serves as the seat of Aveiro Municipality. Aveiro District is bordered by the Po ...

, being re-elected on four occasions and serving until the beginning of 1993.

Early life

Breu was born in Cantanhede in the Coimbra District in 1940. She became a teacher and among her activities were trips to Mozambique and South Africa, having in the latter coordinated the introduction of basic education at the Association of the Portuguese Community of Pretoria (ACPP).

Political career

Following the

Carnation Revolution The Carnation Revolution ( pt, Revolução dos Cravos), also known as the 25 April ( pt, 25 de Abril, links=no), was a military coup by left-leaning military officers that overthrew the authoritarian Estado Novo regime on 25 April 1974 in Lisbo ...

in April 1974, which overthrew the '' Estado Novo'' dictatorship, Breu became active in her local teachers' union and joined the centre-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 For ...

(PSD). At the time, politics was very much regarded in Portugal as something for men but in Estarreja the PSD was unable to persuade a man to represent the party in the mayoral election. Breu was already a member of a group planning a new municipal structure, and she was then invited to be the candidate. She was elected, becoming just one of five women to become mayors at the end of 1976, the others being Judite Mendes de Abreu, Alda Santos Victor, Francelina Chambel, and Odete Isabel. She served as mayor until 1993 and then went on to play important roles in the PSD at regional and national level as well as taking on local leadership activities, such as being president of the ''Cooperativa para a Educação e Reabilitaçao de Cidadãos Inadaptados de Estarreja'' (Cooperative for the Education and Rehabilitation of Disabled Citizens of Estarreja – CERCIESTA).

Awards and honours

Breu was appointed as a member of the

Order of Prince Henry The Order of Prince Henry ( pt, Ordem do Infante Dom Henrique) is a Portuguese order of knighthood created on 2 June 1960, to commemorate the quincentenary of the death of the Portuguese prince Henry the Navigator, one of the main initiators of ...

. She has also had a street named after her in Estarreja.

References

External link

Breu talks in a podcast (in Portuguese)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Breu, Lurdes 1940 births Living people Women mayors of places in Portugal 20th-century Portuguese women politicians Social Democratic Party (Portugal) politicians People from Cantanhede, Portugal