Francisco Balsemão

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Person.png Francisco Balsemão   IMDBRdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
(journalist, businessman, politician)
Francisco Pinto Balsemão.jpg
Born1937-09-01
Lisbon, Portugal
NationalityPortuguese
Alma materUniversity of Lisbon
ReligionRoman Catholicism
SpouseMaria Isabel de Lacerda Pinto da Costa Lobo
Founder ofSocial Democratic Party (Portugal)
Member ofBilderberg/Steering committee, Forum Portugal Global
PartySocial Democratic Party
>30 Bilderbergs, Bilderberg Steering committee, Prime Minister of Portugal

Employment.png Member of the Council of State

In office
12 January 2016 - Present

Employment.png Prime Minister of Portugal

In office
9 January 1981 - 9 June 1983
Succeeded byMário Soares

Employment.png President of the Social Democratic Party

In office
9 January 1981 - 27 February 1983

Employment.png Minister of Social Affairs

In office
3 August 1981 - 4 September 1981

Employment.png Assistant Minister of the Prime Minister

In office
3 January 1980 - 9 January 1981

Dr Francisco Pinto Balsemão was Prime Minister of Portugal between January 1981 and June 1983, getting the job after his predecessor was assassinated by the CIA in the 1980 Camarate air crash. He soon moved politics to an unswerving loyalty to the United States.[1] He was a member of the Bilderberg Steering committee.

Career

Balsemão's pre-political career was in newspaper publishing during the fascist dictatorship, first for the Air Force magazine, then as an administrator of Diário Popular (the People's Daily in English) from 1963 to 1971. He founded the Expresso magazine in 1973 and continued to direct it until 1980. He is one of top managers and owners of Impresa media group. He was also a Member of Parliament during the dictatorship, before the 1974 revolution.

In 1974, he helped to found the Social Democratic Party (PSD), of which he is currently member number 1. (The party started as Social Democrat, but all Portuguese party names are confusing, it soon moved to become the leading centre-right, conservative party) In 1975 he was elected to the Constituent Assembly, which was charged with drafting a new constitution and served as an interim legislature. Pinto Balsemão was chosen as a Vice-President of this body.

Following the victory of the Democratic Alliance (a coalition led by the PSD) in two parliamentary elections (in 1979 and 1980), Pinto Balsemão held senior positions in two cabinets led by Prime Minister Sá Carneiro.

When Sá Carneiro was assassinated by the CIA on 4 December 1980, the Social Democratic Party chose Pinto Balsemão to succeed him. Despite his reputation for competence, he was widely perceived as lacking Sá Carneiro's charisma. He had difficulty maintaining the level of support enjoyed by his party, which had been based to a large extent on Sá Carneiro's personal popularity, and also thanks to the new PM's economic shift to the right.

After privatizing banks and changing labor and strike laws, in Sept 1982, he visited the United States "with a reassuring message for the US banking community", meeting with representatives of the main American banks that have been doing business with Portugal. As the CCM pointed out "The result should be to make a West European country that still has a relatively cheap and peaceful labor force, and almost no antipollution laws, irresistibly attractive to foreign investment."[2]

These factors contributed to his defeat in the parliamentary election of 1983. He finally retired from Parliament in 1987 though not from politics.

 

Events Participated in

EventStartEndLocation(s)Description
Bilderberg/20068 June 200611 June 2006Canada
Ottawa
54th Bilderberg, held in Canada. 133 guests
Bilderberg/20085 June 20088 June 2008US
Virginia
Chantilly
The 56th Bilderberg, Chantilly, Virginia, 139 guests
Bilderberg/200914 May 200917 May 2009Greece
Vouliagmeni
The 57th Bilderberg
Bilderberg/20103 June 20106 June 2010Spain
Hotel Dolce Sitges
Barcelona
The 122 guests met in the Hotel Dolce Sitges, Barcelona, Spain.
Bilderberg/20119 June 201112 June 2011Switzerland
Hotel Suvretta
St. Moritz
59th meeting, in Switzerland, 129 guests
Bilderberg/201231 May 20123 June 2012US
Virginia
Chantilly
The 58th Bilderberg, in Chantilly, Virginia. Unusually just 4 years after an earlier Bilderberg meeting there.
Bilderberg/20136 June 20139 June 2013Watford
UK
The 2013 Bilderberg group meeting.
Bilderberg/201429 May 20141 June 2014Denmark
Copenhagen
Marriott Hotel
The 62nd Bilderberg, with 136 guests, held in Copenhagen
Bilderberg/201511 June 201514 June 2015Austria
Telfs-Buchen
The 63rd meeting, 128 Bilderbergers met in Austria
Bilderberg/202318 May 202321 May 2023Portugal
Lisbon
Pestana Palace Hotel
The 69th Bilderberg Meeting, held in Lisbon, with 128 guests on the official list. The earliest in the year since 2009.
Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.


References