António de Almeida Santos (15 February 1926 – 18 January 2016) was a Portuguese lawyer, politician and

government minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ' prime minister', ' p ...

Career

Born in Seia, Portugal, António de Almeida Santos was a

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

who graduated as a licentiate in Law from the

Faculty of Law A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In North America, academic divisions are sometimes titled colleges, sc ...

of the

University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; , ) 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 Coimbra in 1537. The university ...

in 1950. In 1952 he went to the city of Lourenço Marques, Overseas Province of Mozambique (now

Maputo Maputo () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Mozambique. Located near the southern end of the country, it is within of the borders with Eswatini and South Africa. The city has a population of 1,088,449 (as of 2017) distributed ov ...

, Mozambique) where he was a lawyer from 1953 to 1974 and a Member of the Group of Democrats of Mozambique. Following the

Carnation Revolution The Carnation Revolution (), code-named Operation Historic Turn (), also known as the 25 April (), was a military coup by military officers that overthrew the Estado Novo government on 25 April 1974 in Portugal. The coup produced major socia ...

in Portugal, he returned to

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

. As an Independent he was Minister of the Interterritorial Coordination in the first four Provisional Governments, of the Social Communication in the 6th, and

Minister of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

in the 1st Constitutional Government of

Mário Soares Mário Alberto Nobre Lopes Soares (; 7 December 1924 – 7 January 2017) was a Portugal, Portuguese politician, who served as prime minister of Portugal from 1976 to 1978 and from 1983 to 1985, and subsequently as the List of Presidents of P ...

. In those functions he entered 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 th ...

(PS) in its 2nd Congress. In the 2nd Constitutional Government he was the Adjoint Minister to the

Prime Minister of Portugal The prime minister of Portugal (; ) is the head of government of Portugal. As head of government, the prime minister coordinates the actions of ministers, represents the Government of Portugal to the other bodies of state, is accountable to Ass ...

Mário Soares and in the 6th Constitutional Government he was Minister of State and of Parliamentary Affairs. He was also the President of the Parliamentary Group of PS between 16 October 1992 and 10 November 1993, and the President of PS in 1992, reelected in 1994. He was elected the 10th President of the Assembly of the Republic in the 7th and 8th Legislatures (31 October 1995 – 4 April 2002). António de Almeida Santos was also a Member of the

Portuguese Council of State The Council of State (, ) 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 the existence of a Counci ...

from 1985 until his death, as the President of the Assembly of the Republic from 31 October 1995 to 4 April 2002, and from then on as a Member elected by the Assembly of the Republic. In January 2016, aged 89, he died at his home in Oeiras after a brief illness.

Awards and honours

Awards

In 2003 was awarded the North-South Prize.

Honours

Grand-Cross of the

Order of Liberty The Order of Liberty, or the Order of Freedom (), is a Portuguese honorific civil order that distinguishes relevant services to the cause of democracy and freedom, in the defense of the values of civilization and human dignity. The order was cr ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

(25 April 2004) * PRT Order of Christ - Grand Cross BAR

Grand-Cross of the Order of Christ,

(6 June 2008) * PRT Order of Prince Henry - Grand Cross BAR

Grand-Cross of the

Order of Prince Henry The Order of Prince Henry () is a Portuguese order of knighthood created on 2 June 1960, to commemorate the quincentenary of the death of the Portuguese ''infante'' Prince Henry the Navigator, one of the main initiators of the Age of Discovery. M ...

(8 March 2017)

Family

He was married. One of his daughters died of a drug overdose, which led him to become a supporter of the fight against the criminalization of drug consumption. He defended drug legalization.Almeida Santos, António de. ''Que Nova Ordem Mundial?''. Campo da Comunicação, 2008. p. 143.

References

* ''Os Presidentes do Parlamento'' (''Presidents of the Portuguese Parliament''), Assembly of the Republic {{DEFAULTSORT:Santos, Antonio de Almeida 1926 births 2016 deaths People from Seia Socialist Party (Portugal) politicians Government ministers of Portugal Presidents of the Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) University of Coimbra alumni Grand Crosses of the Order of Liberty