The Prime Minister on Thursday proposed to the President of the Republic to appoint Ricardo Mestre as Secretary of State for Health and Margarida Tavares as Secretary of State for Health Promotion.
This nomination proposal has been published on the official website of the Presidency of the Republic on the Internet.
“The President of the Republic has accepted the Prime Minister’s proposal to appoint three new Secretaries of State, to whom he will take the oath at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Palácio de Belém,” the note read.
Like Marta Temido’s previous team, the new health minister, Manuel Pizarro, will also be accompanied by two secretaries of state, who will replace PS deputies António Lacerda Sales and Fátima Fonseca.
Born in Serpa, Ricardo Mestre has been Deputy Director General of the Directorate-General for Health since June this year and obtained his degree in economics from the Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão of the University of Lisbon in 2001.
According to the curriculum note released by the government, Ricardo Mestre is a specialist in hospital administration and has a postgraduate degree in health services management.
He was, among other things, project manager at the Council of Finance in the field of health and business between March 2021 and June 2022 and executive member of the board of directors of the Central Administration of the Healthcare System (ACSS) between March 2016 and March 2021.
Margarida Tavares, from Vale de Cambra, is the coordinator of the Department of Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Centro Hospitalar Universitário de São Soão (CHUSJ).
Margarida Tavares holds a degree in medicine from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto and a master’s degree in Public Health from the École de Santé Publique Institut Pasteur in Paris, and is a graduate infectious disease assistant at the CHUSJ Infectious Diseases Service.
Member of the National Council of Health since 2020 and Director of the Priority Program on Sexually Transmitted Infections and Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection since 2021.
Lecturer and Director of the Curricular Unit Communicable Disease Control of the Master of Public Health at the University of Porto from 2018 to 2022 and researcher at the Institute of Public Health of the University of Porto are other roles emphasized by the executive in the curriculum of Margarida Tavares.
The new health minister, Manuel Pizarro, a doctor and specialist in internal medicine, was sworn in last Saturday to replace Marta Temido, who resigned on August 30.
After being sworn in by the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, the former Socialist MEP assumed that he will face a “very demanding challenge” and that he will face it “with great determination, with great desire to work for the health of the Portuguese and for the National Health Service”.
When asked if he is happy with the new SNS status, Manuel Pizarro replied: “If I didn’t feel comfortable, I wouldn’t be able to take office in this place today”.
The outgoing team of the Ministry of Finance, former Minister Marta Temido and former Secretaries of State António Lacerda Sales and Fátima Fonseca, will resume their duties as PS deputies in the Assembly of the Republic on Wednesday.
Due to this resumption of the three former rulers, deputies Alexandra Tavares Moura, Cláudia Avelar Santos and Rosa Isabel Cruz leave the PS bench.
In the last parliamentary elections, Marta Temido and Lacerda Sales headed the PS list, respectively for the constituencies of Coimbra and Leiria. Fátima Fonseca was chosen in 16th place by the Lisbon circle.
Like Marta Temido’s previous team, the new health minister, Manuel Pizarro, will also be accompanied by two secretaries of state, who will replace PS MPs António Lacerda Sales and Fátima Fonseca.
Miguel Alves new deputy secretary of state to the prime minister
António Costa has also proposed to the President of the Republic to appoint the current Mayor of Caminha, Miguel Alves, as Deputy Secretary of State to the Prime Minister.
This nomination proposal has been published on the official website of the Presidency of the Republic on the Internet.
Miguel Alves, born in Lisbon and a graduate of the Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra, is one of the socialist leaders closest to the current leader of the executive branch and his joining the team of António Costa is intended to strengthen the political coordination of the government.
In the previous government, the positions of Deputy State Secretary to the Prime Minister were filled by Tiago Antunes, who in this context moved to the position of State Secretary for European Affairs.
With the formation of the new government last April, António Costa chose not to include the functions of Deputy Undersecretary of State to the Prime Minister in his executive body, a solution he is now taking up again.
Source: DN
