Maria de Belém Roseira Martins Coelho Henriques de Pina (born 28 July 1949) is a Portuguese politician who served as

Minister of Health A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare spending and other social security services. Some governments have separate ministers for mental heal ...

from 1995 to 1999, Minister for Equality from 1999 to 2000, and President 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 ...

from 2011 to 2014. She is informally known as Maria de Belém.

Biography

She graduated in

Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

at 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 ...

in 1972. She was Minister of Health (1995–1999) in the first government of

António Guterres António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres (born 30 April 1949) is a Portuguese politician and diplomat who is serving as the ninth and current secretary-general of the United Nations since 2017. A member of the Socialist Party (Portugal), ...

, and Minister for Equality (1999–2000) early in his second government. In December 2006, while she was still President of the Parliamentary Health Commission, she was hired as a consultant by Espírito Santo Saúde, a private health provider. She stated that she did not consider there would be any conflict of interest holding both roles simultaneously In 2015, while she was still a member of parliament, she was put forward as a member of the Executive Council of the Board of Governors of Luz Saúde (formerly Espírito Santo Saúde).

2016 presidential elections

She was a candidate in the

2016 Portuguese presidential election Presidential elections were held in Portugal on 24 January 2016. The elections were called after choose the successor to the incumbent President of Portugal, president Aníbal Cavaco Silva, who was Constitution of Portugal, constitutionally not a ...

, but received only 4.26% of the votes, losing to

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 ...

, and not being supported as the official candidate of her party. Roseira announced her candidacy for the 2016 presidential elections on 17 August 2015 and formalized it on 22 December, at the

Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ru ...

, with around 9 200 signatures. Her national agent was Eduardo Marçal Grilo and Simonetta Luz Afonso and Júlio Machado Vaz were the agents 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 ...

and

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

, respectively. Belonging to the honor committee of the candidacy

Manuel Alegre Manuel Alegre de Melo Duarte (born 12 May 1936) is a Portuguese poet and politician. He was a candidate to the presidency of the Portuguese Republic in 2006 and 2011, finishing in second place in both elections. For his literary work, he was awa ...

Jorge Coelho Jorge Miguel Correia Coelho (born 18 October 1978) is a Portuguese former basketball player. He played at his home country for Portugal Telecom (1999/2000-2002-2003), CF Belenenses (2003/2004-2005/2006) and FC Porto (2006/2007). Coelho was also ...

, José Vera Jardim, and

Alberto Martins Alberto de Sousa Martins GCL GOC (born 25 April 1945, Guimarães, Portugal) is a Portuguese lawyer and politician, who has served as Minister of State Reform and Public Administration from 1999 to 2002, and as Minister of Justice from 2009 to ...

. Bruno Matias was the representative for youth. She came in 4th place in the elections, with only 4.24% of the votes, a result well below what the initial polls predicted, in which she even disputed the second place with the other candidate supported by members of the Socialist Party,

António Sampaio da Nóvoa António Manuel Seixas Sampaio da Nóvoa Order of Public Instruction (Portugal), GCIP Order of Rio Branco, ComRB (born 12 December 1954) is a Portugal, Portuguese professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences of the University of L ...

. The result of less than 5% meant that she was not entitled to a state subsidy to cover the expenses of the electoral campaign.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roseira, Maria De Belem 1949 births Living people Government ministers of Portugal Health ministers of Portugal Politicians from Porto Socialist Party (Portugal) politicians University of Coimbra alumni Women government ministers of Portugal