Portugal - Rise to power



Although Durão Barroso engaged in political activism during his student years, his early career was devoted to pursuing a career in academia although he remained active in the PSD. In December 1980, when Prime Minister Francisco de Sá Carneiro was killed in a plane crash, Durão Barroso assumed a larger role in the leadership of PSD. Durão Barroso was aligned with the faction of the PSD that was led by Aníbal Cavaço Silva, an economist and professor. In the early 1980s the country's political scene was turbulent and outbreaks of urban terrorism led to public outcry for stability. In 1985, Portugal joined the European Community (EC), the forerunner of the European Union (EU). This move caused the economy to improve but the government was still in chaos. Elections were called for October 1985, and the center-right PSD won a slim relative majority with about 30% of the vote and 88 of the 250 seats in the legislature;

Portugal

Aníbal Cavaço Silva became prime minister, and Durão Barroso, age 29, was among the PSD candidates elected to Parliament. He was appointed to a top position in the Ministry of Internal Administration soon after the elections. In the elections called for July 1987, the PSD led by Cavaço Silva won an absolute majority (51% of the vote and 148 seats in the assembly); this was a first for a political party since Portuguese independence. Durão Barroso was named to the second-highest position in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He would later be named foreign affairs minister, a post he held from 1992 until the PSD lost control of the government in 1995. While in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he became involved with the former Portuguese colonies around the world, notably Angola and East Timor. He was instrumental in negotiating a settlement between the government and the guerrilla group, Unita, ending the long civil war in Angola.

Cavaço Silva won a third term as prime minister in elections of October 1991, when the PSD again won an absolute majority with just over 50% of the vote and 135 of the 230 seats in the assembly, but they were defeated in 1995.

In 1999 Durão Barroso assumed the leadership of the PSD, the opposition party. He was active in this role, working to keep the party's message of economic conservatism before the Portuguese people, and also traveling to former Portuguese colonies in an effort to maintain strong ties.

António Guterres, Durão Barroso's predecessor, had been prime minister for six years with two years to go, when his PS party suffered significant losses to the PSD in municipal elections. Especially bitter was the PS's loss of the mayor's office in Lisbon for the first time since 1974. Guterres resigned his post in December 2001 following these losses and called for new elections, which were set for 17 March 2002. The PSD, under the leadership of Durão Barroso took control of the government, forming a coalition with the Popular Party (PP).

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