João Cardona Gomes Cravinho (19 September 1936 – 16 April 2025) was a Portuguese politician. He served, among other positions, as member of the

Portuguese Parliament The Assembly of the Republic (, ), commonly referred to as simply Parliament (), is the unicameral parliament of Portugal. According to the Constitution of Portugal, the parliament "is the representative assembly of all Portuguese citizens". Th ...

(1979–1983, 1985–1989 and 1999–2002), member of the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

(1989–1994), and as the Portuguese Territory Administration Minister between 1995 and 1999. He was a member of the PS political party. Cravinho had a degree in

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

. In the 1970s, he was a co-founder of Movimento de Esquerda Socialista (MES). In 2004, after the eruption of several

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities ...

scandals involving people and institutions ranging from mayors like Fátima Felgueiras to football clubs (''

Apito Dourado The ''Apito Dourado'' () affair is a sports corruption scandal in Portuguese football that first arose in 2004. Portuguese Judiciary Police (''Polícia Judiciária'') investigators named several football personalities as suspects (''arguidos'') of ...

''), former Minister João Cravinho noted:

The political system has shown little efficiency in fighting corruption, tax evasion, and fraud. The successive governments did not engage themselves in that fight. Why? Because they want to win the elections… This is a fatal error that we should urgently terminate.

In 2006, as a socialist deputy he was preparing a new set of proposals in order to improve the legal framework of corruption crimes, which included the investigation of someone, when that person's assets don't match his/her declaration of income. The proposal was rejected by the

. Shortly after, Cravinho resigned from the parliament and went to England where he had been appointed administrator of the

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, shortened to EBRD ( French: ''Banque européenne pour la reconstruction et le développement'' or ''BERD''), is an international financial institution founded in 1991 in Paris. As a multilat ...

by the

Portuguese Government 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 ...

headed by socialist

José Sócrates José Sócrates Carvalho Pinto de Sousa (born 6 September 1957), commonly known as José Sócrates (), is a Portuguese politician who was the prime minister of Portugal from 12 March 2005 to 21 June 2011. For the second half of 2007, he acted ...

. Cravinho died on 16 April 2025, at the age of 88.João Cravinho, o ex-ministro que foi uma das vozes mais ativas no combate à corrupção

Distinctions

National orders

Grand Cross of the

Military Order of Christ The Military Order of Christ is a Honorific orders of Portugal, Portuguese honorific order. It is the former order of Knights Templar as it was reconstituted in Portugal. Before 1910, it was known as the Royal Military Order of Our Lord Jesus Chr ...

(8 June 2005)

References

External links

* 1936 births 2025 deaths Socialist Party (Portugal) politicians Socialist Party (Portugal) MEPs MEPs for Portugal 1989–1994 Members of the Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Government ministers of Portugal Portuguese political party founders Grand Crosses of the Order of Christ (Portugal) Grand Crosses 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany {{Portugal-politician-stub