Pedro Santana Lopes: Encyclopedia II - Pedro Santana Lopes - Prime Minister

Pedro Santana Lopes - Prime Minister

Santana Lopes' leadership was made difficult by a number of inherited economic and political problems. When the PSD had first taken power, the country’s economy was in a poor state, with a rising government-spending deficit. Partially because of policies focused on public expenditure of the previous governments (led by Aníbal Cavaco Silva (PSD) and António Guterres of the Socialist Party) and the early 2000s recession had left the country's economy in a poor state. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit on 11th January 2005, "Portugal became the first country to breach the EU's ‘excessive deficit’ rule with a budget deficit of 4.4% of GDP in 2001, well above the 3% of GDP ceiling set by the EU's Stability and Growth Pact." The situation inherited by Santana Lopes was little better, as the previous government led by Barroso had been able to comply with European Union directives regarding the deficit only by the sale of publicly owned assets. Santana Lopes himself failed to gain a reputation as a competent Prime Minister. His unusual rise to power, as Barroso's successor rather than by election, contributed to these difficulties. Although his appointment was in fact constitutional, he was not a Member of Parliament but only a municipal leader, as the Mayor of Lisbon, and many columnists thus saw him as an illegitimate Prime Minister, a view shared by a large section of the public.

Santana Lopes' short career as Prime Minister began inauspiciously, with some members of government being shuffled between departments on the same afternoon as the government was being inaugurated. His Minister of Defence Paulo Portas was taken by surprise during the ceremony when he was announced as the Minister for National Defence and Sea Affairs. Portas' look of surprise when the change was announced was broadcast live on television.

Santana Lopes' period in office was also marked by chaos in the allocation of teachers to schools (more than a month after classes officially started, and resulting from alleged incompetence of the IT provider (designated during the previous Government); the problem was swiftly solved by another small provider), and by claims of pressure exerted on the press, including arranging for the replacement of the information director of the public television channel RTP, and pressing private television channel TVI to tone down the criticism of him by a political commentator, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, a former leader of his own party, who consequently left the channel.

The beginning of the end of the Santana Lopes Administration occurred on November 30, when President Sampaio announced that he was going to dissolve the Portuguese Parliament and call early elections for February 2005, after Henrique Chaves, a Santana Lopes loyalist, resigned after four days as minister for sport, claiming that Santana Lopes lacked "loyalty and truth".

Santana Lopes announced the resignation of the government on December 11. This resignation did not, however, have any immediate practical effect, since the government continued in a caretaker role until the election. He went on to lead his party to their worst result in parliamentary elections in Portugal; the election of 20 February was won by the Socialist Party led by José Sócrates, with whom Santana Lopes had debated every Sunday for one year on the public television station, RTP. Despite expectations that he would follow his coalition partner, Paulo Portas, and resign on election night, he only announced that he would leave the leadership two days later.

Two days after the inauguration of the new government, he returned to complete his term as Mayor of Lisbon. However, when his party failed to endorse him as a candidate for the 2006 municipal elections, he resigned his office one month before the vote, to assume office as Member of Parliament, which he immediately suspended.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Prime Minister", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki