Paulo de Sacadura Cabral Portas is a Portuguese media and political figure, who has, since the 1990s, been one of Portugal's leading conservative politicians. He was the leader of one of Portugal's right-wing parties, the CDS – People's Party (CDS-PP) from 1998 to 2005 and 2007–2016, on whose lists he was elected to the Portuguese Parliament in every legislative election between 1995 and 2015. He was Deputy Prime Minister of Portugal from 2013 to 2015, Minister of State and Foreign Affairs from 2011 to 2013, and Minister of Defence from 2002 to 2005, all three times in coalitions of the PSD and his CDS-PP. Portas withdrew from politics in 2016.
Paulo Portas with U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld during a visit to the Department of Defense in 2002 when Portas claimed to have seen "irrefutable evidence of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction" that turned out to never have existed.
Paulo Portas with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a visit to the State Department in 2011 to discuss Middle East and EU affairs.
The historic fort of São Julião da Barra where Paulo Portas took up residence upon becoming Minister of Defense.
The CDS – People's Party is a conservative and Christian democratic political party in Portugal. It is characterized as being between the centre-right and right-wing of the political spectrum. In voting ballots, the party's name appears only as the People's Party, with the abbreviation CDS–PP unchanged.
CDS-PP rally in January 2005 in Europarque, Santa Maria da Feira, with more than 5,000 people.
Paulo Portas was leader of the CDS-PP from 1998 to 2005, and again from 2007 to 2016.
Party logo, 1974–1982
Party logo, 1993–2009