Vânia Jesus (born 1979) is a Portuguese politician. A member of the
Social Democratic Party (PSD), she represented the
Autonomous Region
An autonomous administrative division (also referred to as an autonomous area, entity, unit, region, subdivision, or territory) is a subnational administrative division or internal territory of a sovereign state that has a degree of autonomy†...
of
Madeira in the
Assembly of the Republic of Portugal between 2009 and 2011.
Early life
Vânia Andrea de Castro Jesus was born in
Santa Cruz, Madeira
Santa Cruz (; "Holy Cross") is a municipality, a parish and a city in the eastern part of the island of Madeira. It is the second most populous municipality, behind Funchal. The population in 2011 was 43,005, in an area of 81.50 km².
History ...
on 17 January 1979. In 2000, she obtained a degree from the
Higher Institute of Business and Labour Sciences – ISCTE in Lisbon, in modern and contemporary history, specialising in cultural management. She received a Master's in European political theory from the
Complutense University of Madrid
The Complutense University of Madrid ( es, Universidad Complutense de Madrid; UCM, links=no, ''Universidad de Madrid'', ''Universidad Central de Madrid''; la, Universitas Complutensis Matritensis, links=no) is a public research university loc ...
in 2006.
Political career
After completing her first degree, Jesus worked for the newspaper ''Jornal da Madeira'', for ''Rádio Jornal da Madeira'', and at the municipality of Santa Cruz. After obtaining her second degree she became an advisor to the PSD Parliamentary Group at the Madeira Regional Assembly and between 2008 and 2011 she was leader of the
youth wing
A youth wing is a subsidiary, autonomous, or independently allied front of a larger organization (usually a political party but occasionally another type of organization) that is formed in order to rally support for that organization from members ...
of Madeira's PSD. She was elected deputy to the
Legislative Assembly of Madeira
The Legislative Assembly of Madeira ( pt, Assembleia Legislativa da Madeira) is the legislature of the Portuguese autonomous region of Madeira. The last regional election was held on 22 September 2019 and the party with the most votes was the ...
in 2007 and was elected to the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal in 2009, where she served on the European Affairs and Education and Science committees. After losing her seat in the national parliament she returned to the Madeira assembly, being re-elected in 2011 and 2015 and leaving in 2017. In addition, she served on the Parish Assembly of
Gaula between 2008 and 2009 and on the Municipal Assembly of Santa Cruz between 2013 and 2017.
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Other activities
From 2017, Jesus was appointed as chair of the Board of Directors of the Madeira social housing company, ''Investimentos Habitacionais da Madeira'', which had as its goal the construction, management and rehabilitation of housing for needy families. In late-2019 she transferred from that position to become Chair of the Madeira Employment Institute.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jesus, Vânia
1979 births
Living people
Members of the Assembly of the Republic (Portugal)
Women members of the Assembly of the Republic (Portugal)
Social Democratic Party (Portugal) politicians
People from Santa Cruz, Madeira
21st-century Portuguese politicians
21st-century Portuguese women politicians