Maria Amélia do Carmo Mota Santos (born 25 August 1952) is a Portuguese politician and academic. She served as a

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

from 1989 to 1994 and a member of the Assembly of the Republic from 1985 to 1989 and from 1999 to 2005. Born in

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 ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

, she graduated from 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 ...

and earned 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 ...

in Institutional and Political History from

NOVA University 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 "N ...

. After graduating, she taught primary school in Lisbon and secondary school in

Almada Almada () is a city and a municipality in Portugal, located on the southern margin of the Tagus River, on the opposite side of the river from Lisbon. The two cities are connected by the 25 de Abril Bridge. The population of the municipality in 20 ...

. Santos began her political career in 1985, winning a seat in the Assembly of the Republic in the

1985 Portuguese legislative election The 1985 Portuguese legislative election took place on 6 October. The election renewed all 250 members of the Assembly of the Republic (Portugal), Assembly of the Republic. In June of the same year, the then incumbent Prime Minister, Mário Soar ...

. She served as a member of the

Unitary Democratic Coalition The Unitary Democratic Coalition (, CDU) is an electoral and political coalition between the Portuguese Communist Party () and the Ecologist Party "The Greens" ( Portuguese: Partido Ecologista "Os Verdes" or PEV). The coalition also integrates ...

, an alliance between

Ecologist Party "The Greens" The Ecologist Party "The Greens" (, , PEV) is a Portugal, Portuguese Eco-socialism, eco-socialist List of political parties in Portugal, political party. It is a member of the European Green Party, European Greens and a founding member of the Eu ...

and 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 ...

. She was re-elected to the Assembly in 1987, and in the 1989 European Parliament election in Portugal she won one of the four seats the Unitary Democratic Coalition won. As a member of the European Parliament, Santos was on the Committee on Development and Cooperation, and served as chair of

The Green Group in the European Parliament The Green Group in the European Parliament was a Green political group with seats in the European Parliament between 1989 and 1999. History In 1989 the Rainbow Group split, with the Greens forming a group called "The Green Group in the European ...

until 1990. She originally served in parliament as a member of The Greens for Portugal, but left the party in 1991 and canvassed with the Group of the Party of European Socialists for the European Union; she remained politically independent in Portugal through the rest of her term. Santos did not run for re-election in 1994, but was re-elected to the Assembly as 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 ...

after the

1999 Portuguese legislative election The 1999 Portuguese legislative election took place on 10 October. The election renewed all 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic (Portugal), Assembly of the Republic. After becoming the first minority government in Portuguese democracy to ...

, and served in that position until 2005. Currently, Santos works in the

Ministry of Culture Ministry of Culture may refer to: * Ministry of Tourism, Cultural Affairs, Youth and Sports (Albania) * Ministry of Culture (Algeria) * Ministry of Culture (Argentina) * Minister for the Arts (Australia) * Ministry of Culture (Azerbaijan)Ministry o ...

References

External links

European Parliament bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Santos, Maria Amélia 1952 births Living people Ecologist Party "The Greens" politicians MEPs for Portugal 1989–1994 Politicians from Lisbon 20th-century women MEPs for Portugal Women members of the Assembly of the Republic (Portugal) Members of the Assembly of the Republic (Portugal)