Manuel Fernando da Silva Monteiro (Anissó,

Vieira do Minho Vieira do Minho (, ) is a municipality in the district of Braga, in the north of Portugal. The population in 2011 was 12,997, in an area of 216.44 km². The present mayor is António Cardoso, elected by a coalition between PSD and the CDS– ...

, 1 April 1962) 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 ...

jurist, professor and former politician.

Early years

Manuel Monteiro started his political life during his youth. He was elected president of the People's Youth (then called Centrist Youth) in 1986.

Political career

He was the winning candidate of the internal elections of March 1992 in the Democratic and Social Centre, moving the party from the traditional

centrist Centrism is a political outlook or position involving acceptance or support of a balance of social equality and a degree of social hierarchy while opposing political changes that would result in a significant shift of society strongly to the l ...

base to the right. His political platform was against a

Federal Europe The United States of Europe (USE), the European State, the European Federation and Federal Europe, is the hypothetical scenario of the European integration leading to formation of a sovereign superstate (similar to the United States of America ...

, the

Maastricht Treaty The Treaty on European Union, commonly known as the Maastricht Treaty, is the foundation treaty of the European Union (EU). Concluded in 1992 between the then-twelve member states of the European Communities, it announced "a new stage in the ...

and the

Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union The economic and monetary union (EMU) of the European Union is a group of policies aimed at converging the economies of member states of the European Union at three stages. There are three stages of the EMU, each of which consists of progr ...

. In 1995 he changed the party's name to People's Party. The renamed party won 9% of the popular vote and 15 deputies, at the

legislative elections A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

held on 1 October 1995. This represented a partial comeback for the party that had been comprehensively defeated in the elections of

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

and

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

. Heavy losses in the local elections of 1997, however, led Monteiro to resign., being succeeded by

Paulo Portas Paulo de Sacadura Cabral Portas (born 12 September 1962, ) is a Portuguese media and political figure, who has, since the 1990s, been one of Portugal's leading conservative politicians. He was the leader of one of Portugal's right-wing parties, t ...

, his former friend and protégé. Manuel Monteiro left People's Party in 2002, following a disagreement with Paulo Portas. In June 2003 he founded the New Democracy Party (PND; ''Partido da Nova Democracia'' in

). This new political force never achieved major electoral successes, and Monteiro left the party leadership in November 2008, resigning from its membership two years later. Since then he has been politically inactive.

Professional and academic career

Manuel Monteiro is a

licenciate A licentiate (abbreviated Lic.) is an academic degree present in many countries, representing different educational levels. It may be similar to a master's degree when issued by pontifical universities and other universities in Europe, Latin A ...

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 ...

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 ...

. He worked at the Portuguese Industry Confederation and

Banco Comercial Português Portuguese Commercial Bank ( pt, Banco Comercial Português, BCP) is a Portuguese bank that was founded in 1985 and is the largest private bank in the country. BCP is a member of the Euronext 100 stock index and its current chief executive offic ...

. He also taught at Tomar Polytechnical Institute and Lusíada University. In 2012 he received a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

degree from Lusíada University.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Monteiro, Manuel 1962 births Living people People from Vieira do Minho Portuguese Roman Catholics CDS – People's Party politicians New Democracy Party (Portugal) politicians 20th-century Portuguese lawyers