The PSD National Strategic Council (CEN), an advisory body led by former leader Rui Rio, will meet for the first time on Saturday under the leadership of Luís Montenegro, and with a new structure and team of coordinators, chaired by Pedro Duarte.
The former leader of the JSD took over the chairmanship of the CEN from the PSD at the last congress, in July, and the party has since made changes to the arrangement of this consultative body, which has been simplified and now has only a national structure, no longer provide decentralized thematic sections.
The meeting will take place behind closed doors in Lisbon in the morning, with statements from Montenegro expected at 1pm.
CEN was one of the “flags” of former PSD President Rui Rio, who presented it in April 2018 with a series of spokespersons, then divided into 16 thematic areas, who would speak on behalf of the party and with the mission to prepare the election campaign . program and other sectoral documents.
At that time, former PSD ministers from the time of Cavaco Silva and Durão Barroso, such as Arlindo Cunha, Silva Peneda, Luís Filipe Pereira, Ângelo Correia, David Justino or Maria da Graça Carvalho, took the floor.
The new CEN will be divided into 25 thematic areas, each with a coordinator (13 women and 12 men), 15 of which will be independent (no militants in the party), according to information released by the PSD.
The PSD states that the coordinators are “recognized members in both academic life and business” and that the youngest coordinator is 25 and the oldest is 58.
Coordinators include some former deputies or governors, such as Emídio Guerreiro (deputy in several legislatures and Secretary of State for Sports and Youth in the 19th and 20th Constitutional Governments, Nuno Freitas (was deputy and councilor in the Coimbra City Council, city for which he served was nominated as a candidate by the local structures in the last municipal elections but was vetoed by the Rio leadership), Nuno Encarnação (deputy in three legislatures and son of the ‘historic’ mayor of Coimbra Carlos Encarnação) or Miguel Castro Neto (who Secretary of State for Territorial Planning and Nature Conservation in Passos Coelho).
Inês Domingos, former deputy and adviser to the Civil House of the President of the Portuguese Republic since 2021, Nuno Sampaio, who was a political affairs adviser to the Civil House of Cavaco Silva, Joana Pinto Balsemão, current councilor of the Municipal Council of Cascais, or Rui Rocha, former president of the PSD’s Leiria district (he joined the board of directors in Rio but resigned due to political differences), are other coordinators elected to CEN.
In this new CEN, new thematic areas also appear, such as “Longevity and well-being” or “Diversity, inclusion and gender equality”, alongside others that already existed such as health, education, finance or defence.
The full list of new CEN coordinators follows:
– Agriculture and food
Margarida Oliveira (Adjunct Professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Santarém, Escola Superior Agrária)
– Environment and sustainability
Joana Balsemão (council member in the municipality of Cascais, where she is responsible for the environment, decarbonisation and citizenship and participation policies)
– Affairs of the sea
Fátima Castro Moreira (University Professor)
– Cities, communities and territorial cohesion
Miguel Castro Neto (Director of NOVA Information Management School at Universidade NOVA de Lisboa)
– Science and higher education
Paula Vaz Freire (Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon)
– Culture
Nuno Encarnação (director of the Setúbal business center at Banco BPI, since September 2016)
– National Defense
Ana Isabel Xavier (Associate Professor of International Relations at UAL and ISCTE)
– Sports
Emídio Guerreiro (manager at several private companies)
– Diversity, inclusion and gender equality
Marta Alegrias (Executive Secretary General at ATIC Technical Association of the Cement Industry)
– Economy and business
Cristina Vaz Tomé (visiting professor of ethics and social responsibility at CLSBE)
– Education and training
Vânia Neto (Education Skills & Learning Lead at Microsoft Western Europe)
– Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Digitization
Inês Domingos (economist and professor at the Católica School of Business and Economics)
– Energy
Celso Leão (Manager and founder of the Spanish company Ertec Iberia, SL. since 2019)
– Public finances and social security
Filipa Alarcão (Investment Manager at Horizon Equity Partners)
– Housing
Rita Alarcão Júdice (partner at law firm PLMJ since 2013, where she is co-coordinator of the Real Estate and Tourism section)
– Investment and Structural Funds
Rui Freitas (administrator of Grupo Media Capital and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Swipe New)
– Justice and Regulation
Raquel Brízida Castro (assistant professor, deputy director of the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon and lawyer at Pais de Vasconcelos e Associados)
– Longevity and well-being
Ana Gabriela Cabilhas (President of the Academic Federation of Porto)
– Foreign policy, diaspora and European affairs
Nuno Sampaio (assistant professor and integrated researcher at the Institute of Political Studies of the Catholic University of Portugal)
– Social policy and work
João Cerejeira (Professor of Economics at the School of Economics and Management at the University of Minho)
– Health
Nuno Freitas (anesthesiologist)
– Security and civil protection
Rui Rocha (President of the Humanitarian Association of Volunteer Firefighters of Ansião and President of the Board of the Federation of Firefighters of the District of Leiria)
– Public services and state reform
João Rui Ferreira (Director General of APCOR and President of Filcork – Interprofessional Association of the
Cork)
– Transport and Infrastructure
Tiago Souza d’Alte (Teacher of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in law)
– Tourism and services
Gonçalo Marques Oliveira (member of the Executive Committee and CIO of the Pestana Hotel Group)
Source: DN
