João Saldanha de Azevedo Galamba (born 4 August 1976) is a Portuguese economist and politician. A member of 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 ...

, he served as Minister of Infrastructure in the

XXIII Constitutional Government of Portugal The XXIII Constitutional Government of Portugal () was the 23rd government of the Third Portuguese Republic under the Constitution of Portugal#Constitution of 1976, current Constitution, and had António Costa as the Prime Minister of Portugal, ...

, between January and November 2023. Galamba was previously a deputy to the Assembly of the Republic and vice-president of the Socialist Party's parliamentary group. He served as Secretary of State for Energy in

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 ...

's first government, Deputy Minister and Secretary of State for Energy in Costa's second term, and Secretary of State for the Environment and Energy in the beginning of the third term. Galamba has been named a formal suspect (''

arguido ''Arguido'' (; if male) or ''arguida'' (; if female), normally translated "named suspect" or "formal suspect", is a status in Portuguese type legal systems, including those of Portugal, Macau, Angola and Mozambique. It is given to a person whom t ...

'') in a corruption investigation regarding deals he was involved in during his time as Secretary of State. The political scandal led to the resignation of Prime Minister António Costa on 7 November 2023 and the fall of the government. Six days later, on 13 November 2023, Galamba resigned from his position as minister.

Early life, education and career

João Galamba was born in Lisbon on 4 August 1976. He received a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

Economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

from the

Nova School of Business and Economics Nova School of Business & Economics (Nova SBE) is a business school located in Portugal that offers a wide range of academic programs including Bachelor's, Master's, Ph.D., MBA, Executive Education programs. The school has approximately 3,000 ...

and was enrolled in a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

, where he taught political philosophy in the Government department. He worked at

Santander Group Banco Santander S.A. trading as Santander Group ( , , ), is a Spanish multinational financial services company based in Santander, with operative offices in Madrid. Additionally, Santander maintains a presence in most global financial centres ...

and DiamondCluster International.

Political career

Before accepting the position of Secretary of State, Galamba was vice-president of the Parliamentary group of the Socialist Party, and served as a deputy from 2009 until 2019. He also worked in the Portuguese Presidency of the

Council of the European Union The Council of the European Union, often referred to in the treaties and other official documents simply as the Council, and less formally known as the Council of Ministers, is the third of the seven institutions of the European Union (EU) a ...

and in the Mission Unit for Integrated Continuous Care. In 2014, as a deputy in the Assembly of the Republic, Galamba warned

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 ...

that he would be the target of “anything against him very quickly”, a warning that referred to Operation Marquês. In 2018, he stated before Parliament that the accusations of corruption and money laundering against the former prime minister shamed “any socialist”. Between 2013 and 2018, he was a commentator on the socio-political debate program ''Sem Moderação -'' then broadcast on

Canal Q Canal Q is a Portuguese cable and satellite television network that is owned by Produções Ficticias, a creative agency and production company responsible for some of the most popular comedy shows in Portuguese national television. The channel ...

and TSF and made available on the SAPO portal - where he worked until he joined the government of

as a Secretary of State.

Secretary of State for Energy (2018–2023)

Galamba became Secretary of State of Energy in October 2018, during

's first government. He was upgraded to Deputy Minister and Secretary of State for Energy in Costa's second term, from October 2019 to March 2022, working in the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Action. In Costa's third term, he started as Secretary of State for Energy and the Environment. As Secretary of State, he was involved with the

Public Prosecutor's Office Public prosecutor's offices are criminal justice bodies attached to the judiciary. They are separate from the courts in Germany, Austria and the German-speaking parts of Switzerland, and are called the Staatsanwaltschaft (). This kind of offi ...

, which investigated alleged irregularities in the concession for the exploration of

lithium Lithium (from , , ) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard temperature and pressure, standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the ...

Montalegre Montalegre (), officially the Town of Montalegre (), is a municipality in northern Portugal, located in the district of Vila Real, along the border with Spain. The population in 2011 was 10,537, in an area of 805.46 km². History Early con ...

. He defended that “he would have committed a crime” if he had reversed the order that reported the approval of the concession of research and exploitation of lithium to LusoRecursos, and said that he did what he had been asked to do. Following an episode of the RTP

investigative journalism Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, racial injustice, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend m ...

program ''Sexta às 9'' about the Montalegre lithium mines, he posted on his

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

account that the program was “manure” and a “disgusting thing”. The comments sparked criticism and condemnation from RTP and the Union of Journalists.

Minister of Infrastructure (2023)

After the resignation of the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing

Pedro Nuno Santos Pedro Nuno de Oliveira Santos (born 13 April 1977) is a Portuguese economist and politician, who has served as the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party (Portugal), Socialist Party from January 2024 to May 2025. Santos previously held positi ...

, António Costa appointed Galamba as Minister of Infrastructure. His choice provoked harsh criticism from the leaders of 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 ...

and Chega. On 7 November 2023, Galamba was named a formal suspect (''

'') in Operation Influencer, a

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 ...

investigation ordered by the Public Prosecution Service of Portugal, regarding several deals he was involved in during his time as Secretary of State. The political scandal led to the resignation of the Prime Minister, who is also under suspicion, and the fall of the government. On 13 November 2023, Galamba resigned from his position as minister.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Galamba, João 1976 births Government ministers of Portugal Living people Members of the 11th Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Members of the 12th Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Members of the 13th Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Members of the 15th Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) 21st-century Portuguese economists Socialist Party (Portugal) politicians