Rui Fernando da Silva Rio (born 6 August 1957) is a Portuguese economist and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

of the

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). He was the Mayor of

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 ...

from 2002 to 2013. Between 2018 and 2022, he was President of the PSD and Leader of the Opposition.

Education

Rio studied at the Colégio Alemão do Porto (the German School of Porto), and earned his degree in

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...

at the University of Porto, where he was president of the Student Association, at the time the only Student Association that was not led by members of the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

, and a member of the Pedagogical Council.

Professional career

As an economist, he began his professional life in the textile industry, having, after completing his military service, also worked in the metalmechanics industry. In the mid-1980’s, he began his path in the banking sector. Within the management of

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 was responsible for setting up financial operations in the primary market, for the listing process of the Stock Exchange, for the study and design of new financial products and also for part of the human resources’ training in the Capital Markets area. Since January 2014, he had resumed his activity at

Millennium BCP 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 officer ...

, joining the Investment Committee of the Millennium Capitalization Fund, even though he is an independent and non-executive member. He is Vice-President of the General Assembly of the Order of Chartered Accountants. He was also the financial director of the CIN paint factory, with special responsibility for the company’s relationship with the Capital Markets. He held the positions of member of the Supervisory Board of

Caixa Geral de Depósitos Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) () is a Portuguese state-owned banking corporation, and the largest bank in Portugal, established in Lisbon in 1876. CGD now has presence in 23 countries spanning four continents through branches, representative ...

(CGD), of non-executive director of the company ''Metro do Porto'' and Chairman of ''32 Senses SGPS''. After having interrupted his activity as an economist during the period in which he was professionally active in politics, in March 2014 he took on positions at Boyden - Executive Search and at Neves de Almeida , HR Consulting, companies in the area of human resources management. He was President of the general meeting of the Northern Regional Section Bureau of the Order of Economists. He published ''Política In Situ'' (2002) and Analysis of the Regional Distribution of Public Investment (''Análise à Distribuição Regional do Investimento Público')'' (1999), with articles published in the newspapers O Comércio do Porto, Público and Diário Económico. He was distinguished with the Marketing Cities and Regions Personality Award in 2004 and, in 2005, with the Alfredo César Torres Award. In 2012, he won the Career Award from the Faculty of Economics of Porto. In 2014, his biography entitled Rui Rio - de Corpo Inteiro by Mário Jorge de Carvalho was published. A year later, in 2015, the book Rui Rio - Raizes de Aço'','' authored by Carlos Mota Cardoso was published.

Political career

Rio began his political career as part of the Juventude Social-Democrata (JSD), the Social Democrats' youth organization. He was Vice President of its National Political Commission from 1982 to 1984. At the same time he was a member of the National Political Commission of the

, under Pinto Balsemão and later Mota Pinto. He was also deputy to the Assembly of the Republic, elected for the

Porto district The District of Porto ( pt, Distrito do Porto ) is located on the north-west coast of Portugal. The district capital is the city of Porto, the second largest city in the country. It is bordered by the Aveiro and Viseu districts to the south, Br ...

, between 1991 and 2001. He was, during this period. From 2002 to 2005, he was vice-president, under leaders Durão Barroso and, subsequently,

Pedro Santana Lopes Pedro Miguel de Santana Lopes GCC (; born 29 June 1956) is a Portuguese lawyer and politician, who is the current president of the Municipal Chamber of Figueira da Foz. He most notably served as prime minister of Portugal from 2004 to 2005. ...

. Repeating the position, between 2008 and 2010, with

Manuela Ferreira Leite Maria Manuela Dias Ferreira Leite GCC GCIH (born Lisbon, 3 December 1940), commonly known as Manuela Ferreira Leite (), is a Portuguese economist, pundit and retired politician. Background She was born in Lisbon, Portugal. Manuela Ferreira Le ...

. Between 1996 and 1998, he was Vice President of the Instituto Sá Carneiro. From 2003 to 2005 he was President of the Eixo Atlântico do Noroeste Peninsular.

Mayor of Porto, 2001–2013

In 2001, Rio was elected president of the City Hall of Porto. After 2001, Rio was reelected Mayor of Porto, with absolute majority in 2005, against Francisco Assis, and in 2009, against Elisa Ferreira. His third and final term ended on the 22 October of 2013, having been, to date, the mayor who, in the history, has longest presided its destinies. He was president of the Eixo Atlântico do Noroeste Peninsular, between 2003 and 2005. His term ended on 22 October 2013, when the new mayor Rui Moreira took office.

Leader of the PSD, 2018–2022

In 2018, Rio won the race to become leader of the PSD after campaigning to hold the party on a centrist line.Paul Ames (January 14, 2018)
Centrist elected to lead Portugal’s opposition party
''

Politico Europe ''Politico Europe'' (stylized as ''POLITICO Europe'') is the European edition of the German-owned news organization ''Politico'' reporting on political affairs of the European Union. Its headquarters are located in Brussels with additional offices ...

''. On the

leadership election A leadership election is a political contest held in various countries by which the members of a political party determine who will be the leader of their party. Generally, any political party can determine its own rules governing how and when a l ...

held on 13 February 2018, Rio defeated his more conservative rival, former Prime Minister

, winning 54 percent of votes from PSD party members. Ending the animosity that followed the 2015 legislative election and nudging the PSD closer to the center, Rio and

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

António Costa signed an agreement in April 2018 which covered cooperation on a reform intended to give more powers to municipalities, as well as on a 12-year strategy to keep using European Union structural funds for development. Under his leadership, the PSD also backed the Socialists in areas such as labor law reform and defense. Amid criticism at his leadership, Rio won a confidence motion by 75 to 50 votes in the party's National Council in early 2019, only after a 10-hour debate. In January 2020, Rio fended off another leadership challenge on a promise to keep the leading opposition force on a centrist course. In the party's 2020 leadership election, he scored 53 percent in a runoff vote against the party's former parliamentary spokesman Luís Montenegro, who demanded a more aggressive opposition to António Costa's

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 t ...

following the Social Democrats' worst result in over 30 years in the parliamentary elections the previous October. On 27 November, 2021, he was re-elected President of the PSD for the third time, winning 18,852 votes, against Paulo Rangel, who collected 17,106 votes. He took office on 17 December, 2021, at the 39th National Congress of the Party, which took place in Santa Maria da Feira, under the motto "New Horizons for Portugal". In the

2022 Portuguese legislative election Early legislative elections were held on 30 January 2022 in Portugal to elect members of the Assembly of the Republic to the 15th Legislature of the Third Portuguese Republic. All 230 seats to the Assembly of the Republic were up for election ...

, the Social Democrats lost 2 seats, taking them to 77 seats in the Assembly. In the aftermath of the election, Rio announced he would call early internal elections on which he would not run again for party leader. On 28 May 2022, the day Luís Montenegro was

elected Elected may refer to: * "Elected" (song), by Alice Cooper, 1973 * ''Elected'' (EP), by Ayreon, 2008 *The Elected, an American indie rock band See also *Election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population ...

leader of the Social Democratic Party, Rui Rio announced his departure from active politics. On 12 September 2022, Rui Rio resigned his Assembly of the Republic seat, which became effective two days later.

Political positions

Rio was a critic of austerity and has sought to distance himself from the remedies adopted by

Pedro Passos Coelho Pedro Manuel Mamede Passos Coelho (; born 24 July 1964) is a Portuguese politician and university guest lecturer who was the 118th prime minister of Portugal, in office from 2011 to 2015. He was the leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) b ...

and the

European troika The troika is a term used to refer to the single decision group created by three entities, the European Commission (EC), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It was formed in the aftermath of the European de ...

in response to the eurozone economic crisis and the

Economic Adjustment Programme for Portugal The Economic Adjustment Programme for Portugal, usually referred to as the Bailout programme, is a Memorandum of understanding on financial assistance to the Portuguese Republic in order to cope with the 2010–14 Portuguese financial crisis. ...

. On social issues, as a centrist, he is to the left of his party as a supporter of abortion rights, euthanasia and legalizing cannabis for medicinal purposes.

Criticism of Freemasonry

Following his party's internal elections, which he disputed against Luís Montenegro and Miguel Pinto Luz, Rio stated that

Freemasonry Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

"is everywhere" and trying to "condition Portuguese society" by giving this organization obscure and untransparent motivations. Rio's statements were a response to Paulo Mota Pinto, who referred to Rio for further clarification on the alleged "dark interests" who want to dominate the party. Rio made statements in January 2019 regarding Montenegro's Freemansonry ties. Rio admitted to perceiving Paulo Mota Pinto's reference and replied: "When I am talking about secret, obscure, little transparent interests, I am referring clearly to Freemasonry." He further went on saying that he "senses" that the Freemasons "are everywhere and trying to condition many things", and that he has "no doubt about that". Rio clarified that if he denied such influences he would be a "hypocrite" and that he is the only one with enough courage to criticize the Freemasons' influence.

Honours

PRT Order of Prince Henry - Grand Cross BAR

Grand-Cross of the Order of Prince Henry,

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

(1 March 2006) * HUN Order of Merit of the Hungarian Rep (civil) 1class BAR

Grand-Cross of the

Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary The Hungarian Order of Merit ( hu, Magyar Érdemrend) is the fourth highest State Order of Hungary. Founded in 1991, the order is a revival of an original order founded in 1946 and abolished in 1949. Its origins, however, can be traced to the O ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

(10 December 2003) * EST Order of the White Star - 1st Class BAR

First Class of the Order of the White Star,

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

(20 February 2006) *

Den kongelige norske fortjenstorden storkors stripe

Grand-Cross of the

Royal Norwegian Order of Merit The Royal Norwegian Order of Merit (Norwegian: ''Den Kongelige Norske Fortjenstorden'' (Bokmål) or ''Den Kongelege Norske Fortenesteordenen'' (Nynorsk)) was instituted by King Olav V in 1985. It is awarded to foreigners, Norwegian citizens livi ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

(25 September 2009) *

Grand-Cross of the

Order of St. Gregory the Great The Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great ( la, Ordo Sancti Gregorii Magni; it, Ordine di San Gregorio Magno) was established on 1 September 1831, by Pope Gregory XVI, seven months after his election as Pope. The order is one of ...

Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of R ...

(3 September 2010) * POL Order Zaslugi RP kl3 BAR

Commander of the

Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland The Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland ( pl, Order Zasługi Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej) is a Polish order of merit created in 1974, awarded to persons who have rendered great service to Poland. It is granted to foreigners or Poles resident a ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

(16 July 2012)

Electoral history

PSD leadership election, 2018 , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 60px", Candidate ! align="center" style="width: 50px", Votes ! align="center" style="width: 50px", % , - , bgcolor=orange, , align=left , Rui Rio , align=right , 22,728 , align=right , 54.2 , - , bgcolor=orange, , align=left ,

, align=right , 19,244 , align=right , 45.8 , - , colspan=2 align=left , Blank/Invalid ballots , align=right , 683 , align=right , – , - , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Turnout , align=right , 42,655 , align=right , 60.34 , - , colspan="4" align=left, Source
Official results
PSD leadership election, 2020 , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! align="center" rowspan=2 colspan=2 style="width: 60px", Candidate ! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 50px", 1st round ! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 50px", 2nd round , - ! align="center" style="width: 50px", Votes ! align="center" style="width: 50px", % ! align="center" style="width: 50px", Votes ! align="center" style="width: 50px", % , - , bgcolor=orange, , align=left , Rui Rio , align=right , 15,546 , align=right , 49.0 , align=right , 17,157 , align=right , 53.2 , - , bgcolor=orange, , align=left , Luís Montenegro , align=right , 13,137 , align=right , 41.4 , align=right , 15,086 , align=right , 46.8 , - , bgcolor=orange, , align=left , Miguel Pinto Luz , align=right , 3,030 , align=right , 9.6 , colspan="2", , - , colspan=2 align=left , Blank/Invalid ballots , align=right , 369 , align=right , – , align=right , 341 , align=right , – , - , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Turnout , align=right , 32,082 , align=right , 79.01 , align=right , 32,582 , align=right , 80.20 , - , colspan="6" align=left, Source
Official results
PSD leadership election, 2021 , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 60px", Candidate ! align="center" style="width: 50px", Votes ! align="center" style="width: 50px", % , - , bgcolor=orange, , align=left , Rui Rio , align=right , 18,852 , align=right , 52.4 , - , bgcolor=orange, , align=left ,

Paulo Rangel Paulo Artur dos Santos Castro de Campos Rangel (born 18 February 1968 in Vila Nova de Gaia) is a Portuguese jurist and politician of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament since 2009. He al ...

, align=right , 17,106 , align=right , 47.6 , - , colspan=2 align=left , Blank/Invalid ballots , align=right , 518 , align=right , – , - , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Turnout , align=right , 36,476 , align=right , 78.17 , - , colspan="4" align=left, Source
Official results

References

External links

Profile on website of the Assembly of the Republic
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rio, Rui Living people 1957 births Social Democratic Party (Portugal) politicians Mayors of Porto Members of the Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) University of Porto alumni People from Porto Recipients of the Order of the White Star, 1st Class Grand Crosses of the Order of Prince Henry Grand Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary (civil) Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Gregory the Great Grand Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland