Ana Margarida Balseiro de Sousa Lopes (born 24 September 1989) is a Portuguese politician. She was a deputy in the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal as a member of the liberal-conservative

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 Fo ...

(PSD) and a former president of Social Democratic Youth (JSD), the youth wing of the PSD.

Early life and politics

Margarida Balseiro Lopes was born in

Marinha Grande Marinha Grande () is a municipality in the Leiria District, Portugal. The population in 2021 was 39,032, in an area of 187.25 km². The city itself has a population of 32,330. It is located right in the middle of the 700-year-old Leiria pine ...

in the

Leiria District The District of Leiria ( pt, Distrito de Leiria ) is a district located in Centro region of Portugal, divided between the traditional provinces of Beira Litoral and Estremadura. It borders on the north with district of Coimbra, on the east with ...

on 24 September 1989. She has a degree in law from the law faculty 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 ...

, and a master's degree in law and management from the

Catholic University of Portugal The Catholic University of Portugal (Portuguese: ''Universidade Católica Portuguesa'', pronounced nivɨɾsiˈðad(ɨ) kɐˈtɔlikɐ puɾtuˈɣezɐ, also referred to as Católica or UCP for short, is a concordat university (non-state-run univers ...

. She is studying for a doctorate. From her time at school she was active in politics, being president of the students' union. Marinha Grande has a strong left-wing tradition and the youth wing of the liberal-conservative PSD was not functioning there. Lopes was responsible for restarting it. At university she was a student representative on the academic council of the law faculty.

Political career

Beginning her political career in Marinha Grande, Lopes then became active in the JSD in Leiria District. She was also a councillor on the Marinha Grande municipal council. In 2015 she was elected as a deputy to the Assembly of the Republic on the PSD list for the Leiria constituency and was re-elected in 2019. In 2017 she went to the United States as part of the Department of State's

International Visitor Leadership Program The International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) is a professional exchange program funded by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The mission of IVLP is to offer current and emerging international leader ...

. She has served on the Budget and Finance Committee of the parliament and has been an alternate on the Education, Science, Youth and Sport Committee. In April 2018 she was elected president of the JSD nationally, a position she relinquished in 2020. She was not a candidate in the 2022 legislative election. Lopes has been a regular contributor of articles to national Portuguese newspapers, particularly ''Correio da Manhã''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lopes, Margarida Balseiro 1989 births Living people People from Marinha Grande Members of the Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Women members of the Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Social Democratic Party (Portugal) politicians University of Lisbon alumni