Maria de Assunção de Oliveira Cristas Machado da Graça (born 28 September 1974) is a Portuguese lawyer, professor and politician. She was the President of the

CDS – People's Party The CDS – People's Party (, derived from ''Centro Democrático e Social – Partido Popular'', CDS–PP)

from 2016 to 2020. Since 2017 she's also opposition leader councilwoman in the

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 ...

City Council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counc ...

, elected with 21% of the popular vote. From 2011 to 2015, she served as

Minister of Agriculture An agriculture ministry (also called an agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister f ...

Sea A sea is a large body of salt water. There are particular seas and the sea. The sea commonly refers to the ocean, the interconnected body of seawaters that spans most of Earth. Particular seas are either marginal seas, second-order section ...

, Environment and Territorial Planning in the government led by

Pedro Passos Coelho Pedro Manuel Mamede Passos Coelho (; born 24 July 1964) is a Portuguese people, Portuguese politician and university guest lecturer who was the List of prime ministers of Portugal, 117th prime minister of Portugal, in office from 2011 to 201 ...

Life before politics

She is a

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

by training and a professor at the

New University of Lisbon NOVA University Lisbon (, ), or just NOVA, is a Portuguese public university whose rectorate is located in Campolide, Lisbon. Founded in 1973, it is the newest of the public universities in the Portuguese capital city, earning its name as the " ...

. She graduated in law in 1997 by the

University of Lisbon The University of Lisbon (ULisboa; ) is a public university, public research university in Lisbon, and Portugal's largest university. It was founded in 1911, but the university's present structure dates to the 2013 merger of the former Universit ...

, was admitted in the

Portuguese Bar Association The Order of Attorneys of Portugal (), also known as the Portuguese Bar Association, is the public association to which all attorneys-at-law belong in Portugal, founded in 1926. Its early origins are found on a private association founded in 18 ...

in 1999 and completed her doctorate in

Private Law Private law is that part of a legal system that governs interactions between individual persons. It is distinguished from public law, which deals with relationships between both natural and artificial persons (i.e., organizations) and the st ...

in 2004.

Political career

Assunção Cristas has been a member of

Democratic and Social Centre - People's Party Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (Cyprus) (DCY) **Democratic Part ...

since 2007. She was first elected to the Assembly of the Republic in 2009 elections, representing

Leiria Leiria () is a city and municipality in the Central Region, Portugal, Central Region of Portugal. It is the 2nd largest city in that same region, after Coimbra, with a municipality population of 128,640 (as of 2021) in an area of . It is the seat o ...

. She was re-elected in 2011 elections, participating in the negotiations between her party and the winning

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

to form a coalition government. Cristas led the CDS-PP into the

2019 elections The following elections were scheduled to occur in 2019. The International Foundation for Electoral Systems has a calendar of upcoming elections around the world, and the National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections in cou ...

. Her party was defeated, with the CDS-PP losing 13 seats and retaining only 5. She announced her resignation as leader of CDS-PP that evening.

Electoral history

CDS–PP leadership election, 2016

, - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 60px", Candidate ! align="center" style="width: 50px", Votes ! align="center" style="width: 50px", % , - , bgcolor=, , align=left , Assunção Cristas , align=right , 877 , align=right , 98.8 , - , bgcolor=, , align=left ,

Miguel Mattos Chaves --> Miguel is a given name and surname, the Portuguese and Spanish form of the Hebrew name Michael. It may refer to: Places * Pedro Miguel, a parish in the municipality of Horta and the island of Faial in the Azores Islands *São Miguel (disamb ...

, align=right , 11 , align=right , 1.2 , - , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" , Turnout , align=right , 888 , align=right , , - , colspan="4" align=left, Source: Results

Lisbon City Council election, 2017

, - ! colspan="2" , Party ! Candidate ! align="center" style="width: 50px", Votes ! align="center" style="width: 50px", % ! align="center" style="width: 50px", Seats ! align="center" style="width: 50px", +/− , - , style="background:;", , align="left", PS , align=left ,

Fernando Medina Fernando Medina Maciel Almeida Correia (born 10 March 1973) is a Portuguese economist and politician Socialist Party (PS) who served as Minister of Finance in the government of Prime Minister António Costa from 2022 to 2024. He previously served ...

, , 106,036 , , 42.0 , , 8 , , style="color:red;", –3 , - , style="background:#0066CC;", , align="left", CDS–PP/ MPT/ PPM , align=left , Assunção Cristas , , 51,984 , , 20.6 , , 4 , , style="color:green;", +3 , - , style="background:;", , align="left", PSD , align=left , Teresa Leal Coelho , , 28,336 , , 11.2 , , 2 , , style="color:red;", –1 , - , style="background:;", , align="left", CDU , align=left , João Ferreira , , 24,110 , , 9.6 , , 2 , , ±0 , - , style="background:;", , align="left", BE , align=left , Ricardo Robles , , 18,025 , , 7.1 , , 1 , , style="color:green;", +1 , - , style="background:teal;", , align="left", PAN , align=left ,

Inês Sousa Real Paula Inês Alves de Sousa Real (born 6 June 1980) is a Portuguese jurist and politician who is currently president of the People Animals Nature parliamentary group in the Assembly of the Republic. At the PAN convention on 6 June 2021, she was el ...

, , 7,658 , , 3.0 , , 0 , , ±0 , - , style="background:white;", , colspan="2" align="left", Other parties , 5,833 , , 2.3 , , 0 , , ±0 , - , colspan="3" align="left", Blank/Invalid ballots , 10,498 , , 4.2 , , – , , – , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan="3" align="left", Turnout , 252,481 , , 51.16 , , 17 , , ±0 , - , colspan="7" align=left, Source: Autárquicas 2017

Legislative election, 2019

, - ! colspan="2" , Party ! Candidate ! Votes ! align="center" style="width: 50px", % ! align="center" style="width: 50px", Seats ! align="center" style="width: 50px", +/− , - , style="background:;", , align="left", PS , align=left ,

António Costa António Luís Santos da Costa (; born 17 July 1961) is a Portuguese lawyer and politician who has served as President of the European Council since 2024. He previously served as the 118th prime minister of Portugal from 2015 to 2024 and th ...

, , 1,903,687 , , 36.3 , , 108 , , style="color:green;", +22 , - , style="background:;", , align="left", PSD , align=left , Rui Rio , , 1,454,283 , , 27.8 , , 79 , , style="color:red;", –10 , - , style="background:;", , align="left", BE , align=left , Catarina Martins , , 498,549 , , 9.5 , , 19 , , ±0 , - , style="background:;", , align="left", CDU , align=left , Jerónimo de Sousa , , 332,018 , , 6.3 , , 12 , , style="color:red;", –5 , - , style="background:;", , align="left", CDS–PP , align=left , Assunção Cristas , , 221,094 , , 4.2 , , 5 , , style="color:red;", –13 , - , style="background:teal;", , align="left", PAN , align=left , André Silva , , 173,931 , , 3.3 , , 4 , , style="color:green;", +3 , - , style="background:#202056;", , align="left", Chega , align=left ,

André Ventura André Claro Amaral Ventura (; born 15 January 1983) is a Portuguese far-right politician, former sports pundit and trainee priest, and founder of the right-wing populist political party Chega. He acts as the leader of the opposition since Cheg ...

, , 67,502 , , 1.3 , , 1 , , ''new'' , - , style="background:;", , align="left", IL , align=left ,

Carlos Guimarães Pinto Carlos Manuel Guimarães Oliveira Pinto, better known as Carlos Guimarães Pinto (born in Espinho, Portugal, in 1983), is a Portuguese economist, author, university professor, think tank executive, blogger and politician. A prominent member of ...

, , 67,443 , , 1.3 , , 1 , , ''new'' , - , style="background:;", , align="left",

Livre Livre may refer to: Currency * French livre, one of a number of obsolete units of currency of France * Livre tournois, one particular obsolete unit of currency of France * Livre parisis, another particular obsolete unit of currency of France * Fre ...

, align=left ,

Joacine Katar Moreira Joacine Elysees Katar Tavares Moreira (born 27 July 1982) is a Bissau-Guinean-born Portuguese academic, activist and politician. She was elected to the Assembly of the Republic (Portugal), Assembly of the Republic as a member of the LIVRE, Livr ...

, , 56,940 , , 1.1 , , 1 , , style="color:green;", +1 , - , style="background:white;", , colspan="2" align="left", Other parties , 207,162 , , 4.0 , , 0 , , ±0 , - , colspan="3" align="left", Blank/Invalid ballots , 254,875 , , 4.9 , , – , , – , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan="3" align="left", Turnout , 5,237,484 , , 48.60 , , 230 , , ±0 , - , colspan="7" align=left, Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cristas, Assuncao Agriculture ministers of Portugal Environment ministers Government ministers of Portugal Living people 1974 births University of Lisbon alumni