Luís Manuel Capoulas Santos (born 22 August 1951, in

Montemor-o-Novo Montemor-o-Novo () is a municipality in the District of Évora in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 17,437, in an area of 1232.97 km2. The city itself had a population of 8,928 in 2001. The present Mayor is Olímpio Manuel Vidigal Galvão, ...

), commonly known as Capoulas Santos, 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 ...

politician, presently serving as Minister of Agriculture, Forests and Rural Development.

Life before politics

Capoulas Santos was born in

. He 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 ...

Sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...

from the

University of Évora The University of Évora (''Universidade de Évora'') is a public university in Évora, Portugal. It is the second oldest university in the country, established in 1559 by the cardinal Henry, and receiving University status in April of the same ...

. He worked as a

secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final pha ...

teacher before taking a position as a technician in the Ministry of Agriculture.

Political activity

His political career started in 1976, after being elected as an alderman in his home city of Montemor-o-Novo. He was first elected to the Assembly of the Republic in 1991, and took office as Minister of Agriculture in 1998, replacing Fernando Gomes da Silva, under whom he was Secretary of State. He kept the office until 2002, when the government led by António Guterres resigned after a landslide defeat in local elections. Capoulas Santos was elected

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

for 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 ...

; part of the

Party of European Socialists The Party of European Socialists (PES) is a social democratic and progressive European political party. The PES comprises national-level political parties from all member states of the European Union (EU) plus Norway and the United Kingdom. ...

, between 2004 and 2014. He returned to the Ministry of Agriculture in 2015, after the nomination of António Costa as

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 ...

Honours

POR_Ordem_do_Merito_Agricola_Gra-Cruz_BAR

Grand Cross of the Order of Entrepreneurial Merit, Category of Agricultural Merit (17/01/2006).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Santos, Luis Manuel Capoulas 1951 births Living people People from Montemor-o-Novo Socialist Party (Portugal) politicians Agriculture ministers of Portugal Members of the Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) MEPs for Portugal 2004–2009 MEPs for Portugal 2009–2014 Socialist Party (Portugal) MEPs University of Évora alumni