Maria de Belém Roseira Martins Coelho Henriques de Pina, GCC (born 28 July 1949) 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 served as President 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 th ...

from 2011 to 2014. She is informally known as ''Maria de Belém'', or, more commonly, ''Maria de Belém Roseira''.

Biography

She graduated in

Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

at the

University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; pt, Universidade de Coimbra, ) is a Public university, public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coi ...

in 1972. She was Minister of Health (1995–1999) in the first government of

António Guterres António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres ( , ; born 30 April 1949) is a Portuguese politician and diplomat. Since 2017, he has served as secretary-general of the United Nations, the ninth person to hold this title. A member of the Portuguese Socia ...

, and Minister for Equality (1999–2000) early in his second government. In December 2006, while she was still President of the Parliamentary Health Commission, she was hired as a consultant by Espírito Santo Saúde, a private health provider. She stated that she did not consider there would be any conflict of interest holding both roles simultaneously In 2015, while she was still a member of parliament, she was put forward as a member of the Executive Council of the Board of Governors of Luz Saúde, (formerly Espírito Santo Saúde).

2016 presidential elections

More recently, she was a candidate in the

2016 Portuguese presidential election The 2016 Portuguese presidential election was held on 24 January. This election chose the successor to the President Aníbal Cavaco Silva, who was constitutionally not allowed to run for a third consecutive term. Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, the cand ...

, but received only 4.26% of the votes, losing to

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa Marcelo Nuno Duarte Rebelo de Sousa (; born 12 December 1948) is a Portuguese politician and academic. He is the List of presidents of Portugal, 20th and current president of Portugal, since 9 March 2016. He is a member of the Social Democrati ...

, and not being supported as the official candidate of her party. Roseira announced her candidacy for the

2016 presidential elections This national electoral calendar for 2016 lists the national/federal elections held in 2016 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included. January *7 January: Kir ...

on 17 August 2015 and formalized it on 22 December, at the

Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...

, with around 9 200 signatures. Her national agent was Eduardo Marçal Grilo and Simonetta Luz Afonso and Júlio Machado Vaz were the agents 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 ...

and

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 ...

, respectively. Belonging to the honor committee of the candidacy

Manuel Alegre Manuel Alegre de Melo Duarte, GCL (born 12 May 1936) is a Portuguese poet and politician, member of the Socialist Party, and a candidate for the 2006 Portuguese presidential election. He ran again in the 2011 presidential election, this time bac ...

Jorge Coelho Jorge Miguel Correia Coelho (born October 18, 1978, Lisbon) is a Portuguese basketball player. He played at his home country for Portugal Telecom (1999/2000-2002-2003), CF Belenenses (2003/2004-2005/2006) and FC Porto (2006/2007). Coelho was al ...

, José Vera Jardim, and

Alberto Martins Alberto Martins, GCL (born 25 April 1945), is a Portuguese lawyer and politician. He was a Deputy to the Assembly of the Republic in the V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X and XI Legislatures, President of the Parliamentary Committee for Constitutional ...

. Bruno Matias was the representative for youth. She came in 4th place in the elections, with only 4.24% of the votes, a result well below what the initial polls predicted, in which she even disputed the second place with the other candidate supported by members of the Socialist Party, António Sampaio da Nóvoa. The result of less than 5% meant that she was not entitled to a state subsidy to cover the expenses of the electoral campaign.

References

1949 births Living people Government ministers of Portugal Health ministers of Portugal Politicians from Porto Socialist Party (Portugal) politicians University of Coimbra alumni Women government ministers of Portugal {{Portugal-politician-stub