Sebastião Maria Reis Bugalho (; born 15 November 1995) is a Portuguese politician, journalist and

political commentator A pundit is a person who offers opinion in an authoritative manner on a particular subject area (typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport), usually through the mass media. The term pundit describes both women and men, altho ...

. Bugalho serves 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 ...

since 2024, after being elected as a member of the Democratic Alliance in the

2024 European Parliament election The 2024 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 6 and 9 June 2024. It was the tenth Elections to the European Parliament, parliamentary election since the 1979 European Parliament election, first direct electio ...

Early life

He is the eldest son of journalists João Fernandes Bugalho and Patrícia Reis. He was a student of

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 ...

at the Institute of Political Studies of the Catholic University and he currently studies at ISCTE – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa.

Journalistic activity

He began his

journalistic Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...

career at the Jornal i, when only 19 years old, after he proposed to write an

opinion article An opinion piece is an article, usually published in a newspaper or magazine, that mainly reflects the author's opinion about a subject. Opinion pieces are featured in many periodicals. Editorials Opinion pieces may take the form of an editorial, ...

there. He was subsequently invited to write an weekly

opinion column An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page," is a type of written prose commonly found in newspapers, magazines, and online publications. They usually represent a writer's strong and focused opinion on an issue of relevance to a targeted aud ...

and to work on the news coverage of the

CDS – People's Party The CDS – People's Party (, derived from ''Centro Democrático e Social – Partido Popular'', CDS–PP)

. In his first years of college he combined classes with

internship An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used to practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and g ...

s at Jornal i and Sol. He wrote mainly about politics, having interviewed

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 ...

Graça Fonseca Graça Maria da Fonseca Caetano Gonçalves (born 13 August 1971) is a Portuguese politician who served as Minister of Culture in the government of Prime Minister António Costa . Fonseca graduated with a law degree from the University of Lisbon ...

, Rui Moreira,

Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos Francisco José Nina Martins Rodrigues dos Santos (born 29 September 1988) is a Portuguese conservative politician and a lawyer. He was elected President of the CDS – People's Party in the National Congress of the Party in Aveiro, with 46% of ...

and

André Ventura André Claro Amaral Ventura (; born 15 January 1983) is a Portuguese far-right politician, former sports pundit and trainee priest, and founder of the right-wing populist political party Chega. He acts as the leader of the opposition since Cheg ...

. Shortly before abandoning his journalistic career, he published a article about the future list of CDS-PP candidates for the 2019 legislative elections, a list that he would later join. He was then invited to offer

political commentary Political criticism, also referred to as political commentary or political discussion, is a type of criticism that is specific of or relevant to politics, including policies, politicians, political parties, and types of government. See also *Cr ...

TVI TVI may refer to: *RTL-TVI, a French-language television station in Belgium *TVi (channel), a Ukrainian TV-channel *TVi, former name of TV Okey, a Malaysian TV-network * Tamil Vision International, a Tamil language television channel in Toronto, C ...

, with José Miguel Júdice and Constança Cunha e Sá. He then had a program, with António Rolo Duarte, ''Novos Fora Nada'', on

TVI24 Cable News Network Portugal, also known as CNN Portugal and abbreviated as CNN PT, is a Portuguese basic cable and satellite television news channel owned by Media Capital. It was launched on 26 February 2009 as TVI 24, the 24-hour news channel ...

. He was a columnist at

Diário de Notícias () is a Portuguese weekly newspaper published in Lisbon, Portugal. Established since 1864, the paper is considered a newspaper of record for Portugal. History and profile ''Diário de Notícias'' was first published in Lisbon on 29 December 1 ...

, at

Observador ''Observador'' is a Portuguese online newspaper started on May 19, 2014. It is the only Portuguese-language newspaper in Portugal with a defined political orientation ( right-wing liberalism). It is an online newspaper with no printed edition, w ...

and a commentator at

CNN Portugal Cable News Network Portugal, also known as CNN Portugal and abbreviated as CNN PT, is a Portugal, Portuguese cable television, basic cable and satellite television news television channel, channel owned by Media Capital. It was launched on 26 Feb ...

. He is currently a columnist for the weekly

Expresso Expresso may refer to: * Espresso, a coffee beverage * eXpresso, a hosted workspace for Microsoft Office communities * Expresso (Donkey Kong), a character in the ''Donkey Kong Country'' series * ''Expresso'' (newspaper), based in Lisbon, Portug ...

. Between October 2023 and April 2024, he was a commentator on

SIC Notícias SIC Notícias () is the cable news channel of the Portuguese television network SIC (''Sociedade Independente de Comunicação'') and the second thematic channel of the station. It is available on basic cable and satellite. It replaced CNL (''C ...

, which underwent a

rebranding Rebranding is a marketing strategy in which a new name, term, symbol, design, concept or combination thereof is created for an established brand with the intention of developing a new, differentiated identity in the minds of consumers, investors ...

that same month.

Political career

He was chosen by

Assunção Cristas Maria de Assunção de Oliveira Cristas Machado da Graça (born 28 September 1974) is a Portuguese lawyer, professor and politician. She was the President of the CDS – People's Party from 2016 to 2020. Since 2017 she's also opposition leader c ...

to join, in sixth place, the CDS-PP list, in the 2019 Legislative Elections, by the Lisbon constituency, as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

. At that time he was not elected but later, in September 2021, he was able to replace the MP Ana Rita Bessa, in the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal, but at that time he refused to do so. In 2024, Bugalho was chosen as the main candidate from the Democratic Alliance to the

, after a lot of speculation that the main candidate would be the Mayor of

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 ...

Rui Moreira. Bugalho considers himself to be right-wing,

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

and conservative, but also Europeanist and

Atlanticist Atlanticism, also known as Transatlanticism or North Atlanticism, is the ideology which advocates a close alliance between nations in Northern America (the United States and Canada) and in Europe on political, economic, and defense issues. The te ...

Electoral history

European Parliament election, 2024

, - ! colspan="2" , Party ! Candidate ! Votes ! align="center" style="width: 50px", % ! align="center" style="width: 50px", Seats ! align="center" style="width: 50px", +/− , - , style="background:;", , align="left", PS , align=left ,

Marta Temido Marta Alexandra Fartura Braga Temido de Almeida Simões (born 2 March 1974) is a Portuguese politician who served as Minister of Health under Prime Minister António Costa, between 15 October 2018 and 10 September 2022. She submitted her resignati ...

, , 1,268,915 , , 32.1 , , 8 , , style="color:red;", –1 , - , style="background:;", , align="left", AD , align=left , Sebastião Bugalho , , 1,229,895 , , 31.1 , , 7 , , ±0 , - , style="background:#202056;", , align="left", Chega , align=left ,

António Tânger Corrêa António Manuel Moreira Tânger Corrêa (born 24 April 1952) is a politician, former diplomat A diplomat (from ; romanization, romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state (polity), state, International organization, intergovern ...

, , 387,068 , , 9.8 , , 2 , , style="color:green;", +2 , - , style="background:;", , align="left", IL , align=left ,

João Cotrim de Figueiredo João Fernando Cotrim de Figueiredo (born 24 June 1961) is a Portuguese businessman and Liberal Initiative politician. He was the party's first member of the Assembly of the Republic, for Lisbon, in October 2019. He was the leader of the party ...

, , 358,811 , , 9.1 , , 2 , , style="color:green;", +2 , - , style="background:;", , align="left", BE , align=left , Catarina Martins , , 168,107 , , 4.3 , , 1 , , style="color:red;", –1 , - , style="background:;", , align="left", CDU , align=left , João Oliveira , , 162,630 , , 4.1 , , 1 , , style="color:red;", –1 , - , style="background:;", , align="left",

Livre Livre may refer to: Currency * French livre, one of a number of obsolete units of currency of France * Livre tournois, one particular obsolete unit of currency of France * Livre parisis, another particular obsolete unit of currency of France * Fre ...

, align=left ,

Francisco Paupério Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''. Meaning of the name Francisco In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed "Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Commu ...

, , 148,572 , , 3.8 , , 0 , , ±0 , - , style="background:#1D4E89;", , align="left", ADN , align=left ,

Joana Amaral Dias Joana Beatriz Nunes Vicente Amaral Dias (born 13 May 1973) is a Portuguese politician and clinical psychologist. She was member of the Portuguese Parliament for the Left Bloc (2002–2005). She is the National Democratic Alternative candidate ...

, , 54,120 , , 1.4 , , 0 , , ±0 , - , style="background:teal;", , align="left", PAN , align=left , Pedro Fidalgo Marques , , 48,006 , , 1.2 , , 0 , , style="color:red;", –1 , - , style="background:white;", , colspan="2" align="left", Other parties , 48,647 , , 1.2 , , 0 , , ±0 , - , colspan="3" align="left", Blank/Invalid ballots , 77,208 , , 2.0 , , – , , – , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan="3" align="left", Turnout , 3,951,979 , , 36.63 , , 21 , , ±0 , - , colspan="7" align=left, Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bugalho, Sebastião 1995 births Living people Portuguese journalists MEPs for Portugal 2024–2029