Manuel Pizarro (born 2 February 1964) is a Portuguese politician of the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...

who served as

Minister of Health A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare and other social security services. Some governments have separate ministers for mental health. Coun ...

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

António Costa's third cabinet from 2022 to 2024. He previously was a

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

from

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

to 2022.

Political career

Pizarro started his political career as a member of the Parish Council in

Ramalde Ramalde () is a Portuguese civil parish of the municipality of Porto. The population in 2011 was 38,012,

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

, firstly as a member of the

Portuguese Communist Party The Portuguese Communist Party ( pt, Partido Comunista Português, , PCP) is a communist, Marxist–Leninist political party in Portugal based upon democratic centralism. The party also considers itself patriotic and internationalist,Portu ...

and, from

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

, as a member of the

. He was firstly elected to parliament after the 2005 legislative election, being a candidate in

Porto District The District of Porto ( pt, Distrito do Porto ) is located on the north-west coast of Portugal. The district capital is the city of Porto, the second largest city in the country. It is bordered by the Aveiro and Viseu districts to the south, Br ...

. He ran for mayor of

twice, firstly in

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

and secondly in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

, losing both times to Rui Moreira.

Member of the European Parliament, 2019–2022

Pizzaro was elected as

after the 2019 European elections. In parliament, he served on the

Committee on Employment and Social Affairs The Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) is a committee of the European Parliament. It is responsible for issues of employment and social policy, including labour rights, social security, inclusion, free movement for workers and pensio ...

and the

Committee on Fisheries The Committee on Fisheries (PECH) is a committee of the European Parliament. Chris Davies was the chairman (2019 – 2020) - until the United Kingdom left the European Union. Committee mandate PECH is the European Parliament committee respon ...

. In addition to his committee assignments, Pizzaro was part of the parliament's delegation for relations with

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. He was also a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on Trade Unions and the URBAN Intergroup.

Minister of Health, 2022–2024

In September 2022, Pizzaro was appointed by

António Costa to replace Marta Temido as

, joining the XXIII Constitutional Government. On May 18, 2023, the Portuguese state broadcaster

Rádio e Televisão de Portugal Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP) is the public service broadcasting organisation of Portugal. It operates four national television channels and three national radio stations, as well as several satellite and cable offerings. The current co ...

reported that Pizarro was under investigation by the Portuguese Public Prosecution Service.

Other activities

* UNITE – Parliamentary Network to End HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis and Other Infectious Diseases, Member (since 2019)Members – Western & Central Europe
/ref>

References

1964 births 21st-century Portuguese politicians Health ministers of Portugal Living people Members of the 10th Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Members of the 11th Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Members of the 12th Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Members of the 16th Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) MEPs for Portugal 2019–2024 Socialist Party (Portugal) MEPs Socialist Party (Portugal) politicians {{Portugal-MEP-stub