1. Benedict (Viktor) Gombocz

2.  Location: Southern Europe, bordering
the North Atlantic Ocean, west of Spain
 Area
◦ Total: 92,090 sq km
◦ Country comparison to the world: 111
◦ Land: 91,470 sq km
◦ Water: 620 sq km (note: includes the Azores and
Madeira Islands)
 Area – comparative: Slightly smaller
than Indiana
 Land boundaries:
◦ Total: 1,214 km
◦ Border countries: Spain 1,214 km
 Coastline: 1,793 km

4.  The politics of Portugal function in a structure of a parliamentary representative
democratic republic, with the PM as head of government, and of a multi-party structure.
 The head of state is the President of the Republic, who has several important powers,
which he frequently exercises.
 The Council of Ministers exercises executive power.
 Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Assembly of the Republic.
 Since 1975, the party structure is ruled by the social democratic Socialist Party and the
liberal conservative Social Democratic Party.
 The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.

5.  The national and regional governments are ruled by two political parties: the PS (a Social
Democratic party that bears resemblance to the British Labour Party or the German SPD) and
the PSD (a conservative party and member of the EPP), who have related base politics in some
themes; both are pro-Europe and advocate the market economy.
 Other parties with seats in the parliament are the Portuguese Communist Party, the People’s
Party, the Left Bloc, and the Green Party.
 The Communists and the Greens are in coalition as the Unitarian Democratic Coalition.
 Pedro Passos Coelho is as of 2011 the PM for the liberal conservative Social Democratic Party in
coalition with the right-wing conservative People’s Party; a majority in the 132 MPs Parliament
support that coalition.
 With 74 MPs, the Socialist Party (ex-PM José Sócrates’ party) is now the main opposition party.
 Parties represented to the left of the governing coalition are the Portuguese Communist Party
(16 MPs), the Green Party (2 MPs), and the Left Bloc (8 MPs).

6. Powers of the Executive branch Main office holders
 The President, elected to a five-year term by direct,
widespread suffrage, is also commander-in-chief of the
armed forces.
 Presidential powers include nominating the PM and Council of
Ministers (in which the President needs to be directed by the
assembly election outcomes), discharging the PM, dissolving
the assembly to call early elections, rejecting legislation
(which the assembly can overrule), and calling a state of war
or siege.
 The Council of State, a presidential advisory body, is
comprised of six senior civilian officers, any ex-presidents
elected under the constitution of 1976, five members selected
by the assembly, and five chosen by the President.
 The presidentially nominated PM, who names the Council of
Ministers, leads the government.
 A new government has to specify the extensive outline of its
policy in a program and present it to the assembly for a
compulsory period of debate.
 The assembly’s failure to refuse the program by a majority of
delegates confirms the government in office.
 Office: President
◦ Name: Aníbal Cavaco Silva
◦ Party: Social Democratic Party
◦ Since: 9 March 2006
 Office: Prime Minister
◦ Name: Pedro Passos Coelho
◦ Party: Social Democratic Party
◦ Since: 21 June 2011

7.  The presidency, the PM and Council of
Ministers (the government), the Assembly
of the Republic (the parliament), and the
judiciary are the four major parts of the
national government.
 The Assembly of the Republic is a
unicameral body consisting of up to 230
delegates.
 Elected by universal suffrage in line with a
structure of proportional representation,
delegates serve terms of office of four
years, the exception being when the
president dissolves the assembly and calls
for new elections.

8.  Social Democratic Party (Partido
Social Democrata)
 Socialist Party (Partido Socialista)
 People’s Party (Partido Popular)
 Communist Party (Partido
Comunista Português)
 Left Bloc (Bloco de Esquerda)
 Green Party (Os Verdes)

9.  The court of last appeal is the national Supreme Court.
 Military, administrative, and fiscal courts are assigned as separate court
categories.
 A nine-member Constitutional Court evaluates the constitutionality of legislation.

10.  Portugal is divided into 18 districts (plural
- distritos, singular – distrito) and two
self-governing regions (plural - regiões
autónomas, singular - região autónoma):
Aveiro, Azores (Açores), Beja, Braga,
Bragança, Castelo Branco, Coimbra, Évora,
Faro, Guarda, Leiria, Lisboa, Madeira,
Portalegre, Porto, Santarém, Viana de
Castelo, Vila Real, Viseu.

11.  Born in Boliqueime on 15 July 1939.
 19th and current President of Portugal; was
sworn in on 9 March 2006.
 Won the Portuguese presidential election
on 22 January 2006; was re-elected on 23
January 2011, for a second five-year term.
 Was also PM of Portugal from 6 November
1985-28 October 1995.
 His ten-year tenure as PM was the
lengthiest of any PM since António de
Oliveira Salazar; was the first Portuguese
PM to have obtained a complete
parliamentary majority under the current
constitutional structure (which was created
after Portugal’s redemocratization after the
Carnation Revolution).

12.  Born 24 July 1964 in Coimbra.
 118th and current PM of Portugal since
21 June 2011.
 Also the current leader of the Social
Democratic Party (PSD) since 26 March
2010.
 Was active in political life early on;
became the national leader of the PSD’s
youth branch.
 Is a commerce executive by trade; has
led the XIX Governo Constitucional
(Portugal’s 19th Constitutional
Government) as head of government
since 21 June 2011.

13.  Centre-right, liberal conservative political party in Portugal.
 Often known by its Portuguese acronym, PSD; on ballot papers, its
acronym appears as PPD/PSD, with the first three letters coming from the
party’s initial name, Democratic People’s Party (Partido Popular
Democrático).
 Won the June 2011 election; acquired 108/230 seats in the Assembly of
the Republic.
 Was founded in 1974, two weeks subsequent to the Carnation
Revolution.
 Allied in conjunction with centre-right parties to found the Democratic
Alliance in 1979; won the legislative election that same year.
 Formed a grand coalition with the competitor Socialist Party following the
1983 legislative election, prior to winning the legislative election in 1985
under new party leader Aníbal Cavaco Silva.
 Cavaco Silva served as PM for ten years, implanting significant economic
liberalisation and winning two landslide victors.
 Lost the 1995 legislative election after Cavaco Silva resigned.
 Returned to power in 2002 under José Manuel Durão Barroso, but lost the
2005 legislative election.
 Current PM Pedro Passos Coelho, the PSD’s current leader, became its
leader on 26 March 2010; became PM the following year.
 In spite of its name, it belongs to the centre-right, to the right of the
Socialist Party and the left of the People’s Party; its initial political
position, after it was founded as the People’s Democratic Party, was left
of centre and social democratic, but it shifted to the right in the 1980s.
 Member of the European People’s Party (EPP) and the Centrist Democrat
International; previously belonged to the ELDR and the Liberal
International until 1996.
 Issues the weekly newspaper Povo Livre (Free People).

14.  Social-democratic political party in Portugal.
 Founded on 19 April 1973 in the German city of Bad
Münstereifel, by radicals from Portuguese Socialist
Action (Portuguese: Acção Socialista Portuguesa).
 Its current leader is António José Seguro; its leader until
5 June 2011 was ex-PM of Portugal José Sócrates.
 Lost the June 2011 legislative election; currently holds
74/230 seats in the Portuguese Parliament.
 Is prominent because roughly one third of its members
in the Assembly of the Republic are women.
 Sócrates stepped down as General Secretary on the
night of 5 June 2011, after the PS’s defeat in the general
election by a margin higher than anticipated.
 On 23 July, Seguro was elected the PS’s new leader; won
68% of the vote against his opponent, Francisco Assis,
who pulled 32%.
 Member of Socialist International (International
affiliation), Party of European Socialists (European
affiliation), Progressive Alliance of Socialists and
Democrats (EP group), and General Union of Workers
(Trade union affiliation); has seven members in the EP
within the Socialists and Democrats (S & D) Group in the
seventh parliament.