Maria Constança Dias Urbano de Sousa (born 1 April 1967) is a Portuguese

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

and the country's former

Minister of Internal Administration The Ministry of Internal Administration ( pt, Ministério da Administração Interna or ''MAI''), is the Portuguese government ministry responsible for the public security, the civil defense, the electoral administration, the road traffic safety a ...

Education

Constança Urbano de Sousa graduated in Law from the Faculty of Law of the

University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; pt, Universidade de Coimbra, ) is a Public university, public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coi ...

, in 1991, and received a postgraduate degree in European Law and 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 ...

in Law from

Saarland University Saarland University (german: Universität des Saarlandes, ) is a public research university located in Saarbrücken, the capital of the German state of Saarland. It was founded in 1948 in Homburg in co-operation with France and is organized in si ...

, in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, in 1994 and 1997, respectively.

Professional career

She is a former Portuguese

, in

António Costa António Luís Santos da Costa GCIH (; born 17 July 1961) is a Portuguese lawyer and politician serving as the 119th and current prime minister of Portugal since 26 November 2015, presiding over the XXI (2015–2019), XXII (2019–2022) and ...

cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...

. During her tenure, Portugal experienced the deadliest wildfires ever, firstly in Pedrogão Grande in June 2017 (65 dead) and later across the country in October 2017 (41 dead). In the sequence of the wildfires in Portugal in

June June is the sixth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and is the second of four months to have a length of 30 days, and the third of five months to have a length of less than 31 days. June contains the summer solstice in ...

and

October October is the tenth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and the sixth of seven months to have a length of 31 days. The eighth month in the old calendar of Romulus , October retained its name (from Latin and Greek ''ôct ...

, Constança Urbano de Sousa resigned on 18 October 2017. From 2006 to 2012, she coordinated the Justice and Internal Affairs group of Portugal's Permanent Representation to the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

. For six years, she headed the national delegation to the Strategic Committee on Immigration, Frontiers and Asylum of the European Union, which she chaired in 2007, and was part of other committees of

Council of the European Union The Council of the European Union, often referred to in the treaties and other official documents simply as the Council, and informally known as the Council of Ministers, is the third of the seven Institutions of the European Union (EU) as ...

Personal life

She was born in the civil parish ('' freguesia'') of

Sé Nova SE, Se, or Sé may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Sé'' (album), by Lúnasa, 2006 * Se (instrument), a traditional Chinese musical instrument Businesses and organizations * Sea Ltd (NYSE: SE), tech conglomerate headquartered in Singapore ...

, in

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of . The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto Metropolitan Area, Porto, and Bra ...

, the daughter of former

Ombudsman An ombudsman (, also ,), ombud, ombuds, ombudswoman, ombudsperson or public advocate is an official who is usually appointed by the government or by parliament (usually with a significant degree of independence) to investigate complaints and at ...

Alfredo José de Sousa and Maria Clara Pires Dias Urbano de Sousa. She lives in

Cascais Cascais () is a town and municipality in the Lisbon District of Portugal, located on the Portuguese Riviera. The municipality has a total of 214,158 inhabitants in an area of 97.40 km2. Cascais is an important tourism in Portugal, tourist de ...

, a cosmopolitan suburb of the Portuguese capital.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sousa, Constança Urbano de 1967 births Government ministers of Portugal Women government ministers of Portugal Living people People from Coimbra People from Cascais 20th-century Portuguese lawyers Portuguese women lawyers University of Coimbra alumni Female interior ministers