José Manuel Cabral Dias Bolieiro (born 23 June 1965) is a Portuguese

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 ...

(PSD) politician, serving as the President of the Regional Government of the Azores since the 2020 election. As holder of that office, he is also a member of the

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Early political career

Bolieiro graduated in law from 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 ...

. From 1998 to 2009 he was a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Azores, and served as his party's leader within it. He was the president of the municipal assembly in Povoação from 2002 to 2009, and then the deputy mayor of

Ponta Delgada Ponta Delgada (; ) is the largest municipality (''concelho'') and executive capital of the Autonomous Region of the Azores in Portugal. It is located on São Miguel Island, the largest and most populous in the archipelago. As of 2021, it has 67,2 ...

until 2012 when he took the mayoralty. He resigned to concentrate on leading his party in the 2020 regional election. In July 2019, the leader of the PSD in the Azores, Alexandre Gaudêncio, was investigated for alleged violations of public contracting law when he was mayor of

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. He resigned in October and Bolieiro succeeded him in November, with 98.5% of the vote.

President of the Government of the Azores

In the 2020 regional election, the PSD came second to the

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(PS) of incumbent president Vasco Cordeiro, but gained a majority after forming a government with the CDS – People's Party and the People's Monarchist Party (PPM), with support from Chega and the Liberal Initiative (IL). In March 2023, Nuno Barata, the sole IL deputy in the Legislative Assembly of the Azores, withdrew his support from the government, as did Carlos Furtado, an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

formerly of Chega. The pair alleged that the government had broken its agreements and "mortgaging" the autonomy of the archipelago. In November, the budget for 2024 did not pass, as IL voted against and Chega abstained. After meeting with the

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Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa Marcelo Nuno Duarte Rebelo de Sousa (; born 12 December 1948) is a Portuguese politician and academic who is the president of Portugal since 2016. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party, though he suspended his party membership for the ...

, Bolieiro announced a snap election for February 2024. In the 2024 regional election, occurring one month before the national election, Bolieiro's PSD-CDS-PPM coalition retained its 26 seats. With the abstentions of the five members of Chega, one from IL and one from People Animals Nature, a motion of confidence in his government was approved.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bolieiro, Jose Manuel 1965 births Living people People from São Miguel Island University of Coimbra alumni Social Democratic Party (Portugal) politicians Mayors of places in Portugal Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Azores Presidents of the Government of the Azores