José Manuel da Mata Vieira Coelho (born 22 July 1952) is a Portuguese politician. He was a member of the

Portuguese Communist Party The Portuguese Communist Party (, , PCP) is a Communism, communist and Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist List of political parties in Portugal, political party in Portugal. It is one of the strongest List of communist parties, communist par ...

until 1999, and still calls himself a

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

"who evolved". He was a substitute deputy of the

Legislative Assembly of Madeira The Legislative Assembly of Madeira () is the legislature of the Portuguese autonomous region of Madeira. The last regional election was held on 23 March 2025, won by the Social Democratic Party (PSD) with 62,059 votes (43.41% share). Power ...

for the New Democracy Party, taking office in 2008. He became famous for the incident in which he showed a Nazi flag to the assembly as a protest against the

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 ...

refusing to commemorate 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 ...

, among several other episodes as well. Coelho was the

New Democracy New Democracy, or the New Democratic Revolution, is a type of democracy in Marxism, based on Mao Zedong's Bloc of Four Social Classes theory in post-revolutionary China which argued originally that democracy in China would take a path that w ...

's candidate to the

presidency A presidency is an administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation. Although often the executive branch of government, and often personified b ...

in the 2011 election. He won 4.5% of the vote, coming fifth, which was considerably better than expected or forecast by pre-election polling. In

Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...

, Coelho reached second place, with 39% of the votes. On 12 March 2011, he joined the Portuguese Labour Party (PTP), of which he became the vice-president. He was a candidate for the 2011 legislative election but, as the PTP only got 0.3% of the vote, he failed to achieve his election in the constituency of Madeira, having been unsuccessful once again in 2015. In February 2017, José Manuel Coelho asked for political asylum in the Principality of Pontinha, which was granted by D. Renato Barros I.

Electoral results

2011 Portuguese presidential election

José Manuel Coelho finished fifth with 189,918 votes (4.51%).Comissão Nacional de Eleições
(2011)

References

1952 births Living people People from Santa Cruz, Madeira 21st-century Portuguese politicians Portuguese Communist Party politicians New Democracy Party (Portugal) politicians Members of the Legislative Assembly of Madeira Candidates for President of Portugal Portuguese prisoners and detainees 20th-century Portuguese politicians {{portugal-politician-stub