![MiguelPortas(2009)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/MiguelPortas%282009%29.jpg)
Miguel de Sacadura Cabral Portas (1 May 1958 – 24 April 2012) was 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 and 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 ...
for the
Left Bloc, part of the
European United Left–Nordic Green Left
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group
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Groups of people
* Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity
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. He was a member of the
Committee on Culture and Education
The Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) is a committee of the European Parliament.
Responsibilities of the Committee
This committee has focused on the well-being of all members of the human race and the increased opportunities for educat ...
of the European Parliament and a member of the Delegation for relations with the
Mashreq
The Mashriq ( ar, ٱلْمَشْرِق), sometimes spelled Mashreq or Mashrek, is a term used by Arabs to refer to the eastern part of the Arab world, located in Western Asia and eastern North Africa. Poetically the "Place of Sunrise", the n ...
countries.
Miguel Portas was the older brother of the former Foreign Affairs Minister and former leader of the right-wing
CDS–PP,
Paulo Portas, and a great-nephew of
Artur de Sacadura Cabral.
Biography
Miguel Portas received a degree in economics, at School of Economics and Management, in 1986. He worked as a cultural animator in the county of
Ourique
Ourique () is a city in the District of Beja in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 5,389, in an area of 663.31 km2.
This town is traditionally considered the site of the famous Battle of Ourique in 1139, which saw the forces of Portuguese ...
(1984), sociocultural animator and trainer in the
Algarve
The Algarve (, , ; from ) is the southernmost NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities ( ''concelhos'' or ''municípios'' in Portuguese).
The region has it ...
hills as agents of development (1987). Moving on a career as a journalist, he was director of the cultural magazine "Contraste" (1986) and later he was hired as editor of the weekly journal "Expresso" (1988), where he was the international editor between 1992 and 1994. He also directed the weekly "Já" (1996), he was a reporter for magazine "Vida Mundial" (1998–1999), columnist for "Diário de Notícias" (2000–2006) and the weekly "Sol" (2008–2012). He was co-author and host of two television documentary series, "Indian Ocean" (2000) and "Periplus" (2004), on the Mediterranean. He had three books published: "And the rest is landscape" (2002, chronicles, essays and interviews), "The Labyrinth" (2006 – on Lebanon) and "Periplus" (2009 – dedicated to the Mediterranean).
Arrested by Salazarist secret police
PIDE
The International and State Defense Police ( pt, Polícia Internacional e de Defesa do Estado; PIDE) was a Portuguese security agency that existed during the '' Estado Novo'' regime of António de Oliveira Salazar. Formally, the main roles of th ...
when he was 15 for participating in the Associative Movement of Students in Secondary Education in Lisbon, he joined the Union of Communist Students of PCP (1973), reaching the Central Committee a year later. He chaired the Association of Students of the School of Economics and coordinated the Inter-Secretariat Meeting of Associations. He left the CFP in 1989, following the first process of party expulsions triggered by
perestroika. Between 1990 and 1991 he was an adviser to the Mayor of Lisbon on cultural affairs and urban planning. He was a founder of the Platform of the Left, dissolved two years later. In 1994 he created
Policy XXI, which grouped members of the Platform of the Left, the MDP and independents from the demonstrations against tuition fees in higher education. Policy XXI was a launching platform for the Left Bloc (founded in 1999 with people from PSR, UDP and independents). For the Left Bloc he was head of the list for European Parliament elections in 1999, obtaining 1.74% of the votes, and candidate for City Council in Lisbon in 2001. He was elected to the European Parliament in 2004 with a 4.92% share and re-elected in 2009, with 10.73%. There he was a member of the Budget Committee and vice chairman of the Special Commission on Financial, Economic and Social matters.
Miguel Portas was the son of Nuno Portas, architect, and Helena de Sacadura, economist and journalist; brother of
Paulo Portas, politician, half-brother of Catarina Portas, journalist and entrepreneur. He was also great-nephew of the Aviator
Sacadura Cabral
Artur de Sacadura Freire Cabral, GCTE (23 May 1881 – 15 November 1924), known simply as Sacadura Cabral (), was a Portuguese aviation pioneer. He, together with fellow aviator Gago Coutinho, conducted the first flight across the South A ...
. He left two sons, André e Frederico Portas. With Ana Maria Isabel Soromenho Gorjão Henriques he also had a son, Frederico de Sacadura Cabral Gorjão Henriques.
Portas was diagnosed with
lung cancer
Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, malign ...
in 2010, and he died of the disease on 24 April 2012.
References
External links
Official site at the European Parliament
{{DEFAULTSORT:Portas, Miguel
1958 births
2012 deaths
People from Lisbon
Left Bloc MEPs
MEPs for Portugal 2004–2009
MEPs for Portugal 2009–2014
Technical University of Lisbon alumni
Left Bloc politicians