Maria Antónia Moreno Areias de Almeida Santos (born 1962) is a Portuguese politician. As a member of the Portuguese Socialist Party (PS), she was briefly a deputy in the Portuguese Assembly of the Republic during the 8th legislature. She returned to the Assembly in

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

and has been re-elected in every national election since then, including the most recent in January 2022. She has served as chair of the Assembly's Health Committee.

Early life and education

Maria Antónia Moreno Areias de Almeida Santos was born on 14 February 1962 in Mozambique, where her parents were stationed. They had both studied law in Portugal and moved to what was then

Portuguese Mozambique Portuguese Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique) or Portuguese East Africa (''África Oriental Portuguesa'') were the common terms by which Mozambique was designated during the period in which it was a Portuguese Empire, Portuguese colony. Portuguese Moz ...

after marriage, where they had four daughters and a son. Her father was

António de Almeida Santos Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular male ...

, who became a leading figure in the Portuguese Socialist Party and was a former president of the Assembly of the Republic. The family returned to Portugal when she was 11 years old. Santos graduated in law.

Career

In April 1986, when

Mário Soares Mário Alberto Nobre Lopes Soares, GColTE, GCC, GColL (; 7 December 1924 – 7 January 2017) was a Portuguese politician, who served as prime minister of Portugal from 1976 to 1978 and from 1983 to 1985, and subsequently as the 17th presid ...

became president, she was asked to act as legal advisor to the President of the Republic. She worked directly with

Maria Barroso Maria de Jesus Simões Barroso Soares, GCL (2 May 1925 – 7 July 2015) was a Portuguese politician and actress, wife of President of Portugal Mario Soares and First Lady of Portugal between 1986 and 1996. Biography Barroso was the daught ...

, the wife of Soares, and the role gave her the opportunity to meet many other political personalities of the time. She stayed in this role until October 1995, working with a

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 ...

law firm at the same time. From October 1995 to June 2001 she worked as a legal advisor in the office of the President of the Assembly of the Republic, when her father was in this position. From June 2001 to January 2005, she served as President of the Commission for the Avoidance of Drug Addiction in Lisbon, publishing two papers on drug addiction. In this role, she managed to get the use of cannabis for therapeutic purposes approved.

Political career

Almeida Santos came relatively late to formal involvement in politics, not joining Socialist Youth, the youth arm of the PS, until she was 24. She served briefly as a deputy during the 8th legislature (1999–2002) and was then elected as deputy to the Assembly for the 10th legislature in 2005, as a representative of the Socialist Party. Until the 2011 election she represented

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of . The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto Metropolitan Area, Porto, and Bra ...

, moving to represent

in that year. From 2015 to 2019 she represented Guarda before transferring to

Setúbal Setúbal (, , ; cel-x-proto, Caetobrix) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population in 2014 was 118,166, occupying an area of . The city itself had 89,303 inhabitants in 2001. It lies within the Lisbon metropolitan area. In the ti ...

for the

2019 Portuguese legislative election The 2019 Portuguese legislative election was held on 6 October 2019. All 230 seats to the Assembly of the Republic were contested. In a campaign dominated by the Tancos airbase robbery (in which former Defense Minister Azeredo Lopes (2015–20 ...

. In the January 2022 election, Almeida Santos was sixth on the PS list for Setúbal, with the party winning ten seats in the constituency and an overall majority nationwide. In the Assembly, Almeida Santos became chair of the Health Committee, which, under her tenure, has investigated issues such as

euthanasia Euthanasia (from el, εὐθανασία 'good death': εὖ, ''eu'' 'well, good' + θάνατος, ''thanatos'' 'death') is the practice of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering. Different countries have different eut ...

, abortion, and

emergency contraception Emergency contraception (EC) is a birth control measure, used after sexual intercourse to prevent pregnancy. There are different forms of EC. Emergency contraceptive pills (ECPs), sometimes simply referred to as emergency contraceptives (ECs), o ...

. She is a member of the national secretariat of the Socialist Party.

Publications

*2004. ''Contributions to an analysis of the experience of decriminalizing drug use''. Revista Toxicodependências, Volume 10, No. 1. *2003. ''Decriminalization of the Consumption of Narcotic Substances – Interpretation and application of Law 30 /2000 of 29 November''. Revista do Ministério Público.

References