Vasco da Gama Fernandes (4 November 1908 – 9 September 1991), 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 ...
lawyer 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 ...
.
Background
He was named after his most remote relative
Vasco da Gama.
Career
Vasco da Gama Fernandes was
licensee
A licensee can mean the holder of a license or, in U.S. tort law, a licensee is a person who is on the property of another, despite the fact that the property is not open to the general public, because the owner of the property has allowed the li ...
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 ...
, from the faculty of Law of the
University of Lisbon
The University of Lisbon (ULisboa; pt, Universidade de Lisboa, ) is a public research university in Lisbon, and the largest university in Portugal. It was founded in 2013, from the merger of two previous public universities located in Lisbon, th ...
, and became a lawyer and politician. Distinguished as an oppositioner to ''
Estado Novo'', being arrested for several times by the political 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 ...
), he joined the Aliança Republicana e Socialista (ARS) and later to the Movimento de Unidade Nacional Antifascista (MUNAF). In 1945, he was one of the founders of the Movimento de Unidade Democrática (MUD), and also of the Partido Trabalhista in 1947 and 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 t ...
(PS) in 1973.
After the
Carnation Revolution, he was elected a
deputy and
vice-president
A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...
of the
Constituent Assembly
A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected b ...
for PS and, when reelected to the
Assembly of the Republic, he also became its 1st
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
from 29 July 1976 to 29 October 1978, also becoming inherently a member of the
Portuguese Council of State
The Council of State ( pt, Conselho de Estado, ) is a body established by the Portuguese Constitution to advise the President of the Republic in the exercise of many of his or her discretionary powers.
History
Although there are notices about th ...
.
In 1979, he resigned from PS, joining then the Frente Republicana e Socialista (FRS) and later founded the
Democratic Renovator Party (PRD). For this party he was again elected deputy in the legislative elections of 1985 and 1987.
References
1908 births
1991 deaths
People from São Vicente, Cape Verde
Socialist Party (Portugal) politicians
Democratic Renewal Party (Portugal) politicians
Presidents of the Assembly of the Republic (Portugal)
20th-century Portuguese lawyers
{{Portugal-politician-stub