1.
Jorge Sampaio
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Jorge Fernando Branco de Sampaio, GColTE, GCIH, GColL is a Portuguese lawyer and politician who was the 18th President of Portugal from 1996 to 2006. Sampaio was born in Lisbon on 18 September 1939, the Sampaio family lived abroad in the United States and the United Kingdom for some years, due to the professional activity of his father Arnaldo de Sampaio, a medical doctor. His mother was Fernanda Bensaúde Branco and he started his political career as college student of the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon. Jorge Sampaio was involved in the student contestation against the fascist regime and was leader of the Lisbon students union between 1960 and 1961, following his graduation in 1961, Jorge Sampaio started a notable career as a lawyer, often involved in the defence of many political prisoners. His brother is the teenage-psychiatrist and writer Daniel Sampaio and he married firstly a medical doctor named Karin Schmidt Dias, daughter of António Jorge Dias and his German wife, Margot Schmidt. The couple had no issue and later divorced, after the Carnation Revolution of 25 April 1974, Sampaio funded Movimento de Esquerda Socialista but abandoned the political project soon after. In 1978 he joined the Socialist Party, where he has associated with the partys left wing. He was first elected to Parliament as a deputy for Lisbon in 1979, between 1979 and 1984, he was a member of the European Commission for Human Rights, where he developed important work on these topics. Between 1986 and 1987 he was president of the bench of the Socialist Party. In 1989, he was elected president of this political group, also in 1989, Jorge Sampaio was elected the 62nd Mayor of Lisbon, a charge he took in 1990, and was re-elected in 1993, remaining in office until 1995. In 1995, Jorge Sampaio announced his wish to run for the presidency of the Republic and he won the election of 14 January 1996 in the first round against former Prime Minister Aníbal Cavaco Silva and became President on 9 March. After a non-controversial first mandate, he was re-elected as President on 14 January 2001, as President, Sampaios actions were focused on social and cultural affairs. In the international scene, he oversaw the transfer of Macaos sovereignty to China in December 1999. Such conventions of non-executive presidents of EU member states have become a regular event and it is generally considered that Sampaios presidency were marked by a firm sense of prudence and moderation, an approach which earned him a remarkably uneventful first term in office. Sampaio made this decision to political stability at a time when the country was facing economic recession. On 24 February 2005, Sampaio called on José Sócrates, as the next prime minister. Sampaios successor was chosen in the election held on 22 January 2006. Aníbal Cavaco Silva, the man he defeated in 1996, succeeded Sampaio on 9 March 2006, as a former President, Sampaio is a Member of the Portuguese Council of State
2.
Pedro Santana Lopes
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Pedro Miguel de Santana Lopes GCC, a Portuguese lawyer and politician, was Prime Minister of Portugal from 2004 to 2005. He is a former Member of the Portuguese Parliament and he graduated as a Licentiate in Law from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon, where he was Leader of the Student Union, becoming a lawyer. He joined the Portuguese Social Democratic Party in 1976, and has remained a member ever since, there he started his career as a Deputy to the Assembly of the Republic. In 1979, he became an advisor to Prime Minister Francisco Sá Carneiro. In 1991, Cavaco Silva appointed him to the government post of Secretary of State for Culture, leaving office, he successively ran for, and won, 43rd President of Sporting Clube de Portugal, winning the 1994/1995 Taça de Portugal in soccer. Afterwards, he would become Mayor of Figueira da Foz in 1998, during this period he also earned a living as a sports and political commentator and founded a weekly newspaper, Semanário. When José Manuel Durão Barroso resigned in July 2004 to take up the Presidency of the European Commission, Santana Lopes became the President of PSD. As his party was the partner in the coalition government at the time, he was nominated Prime Minister of the XVI Constitutional Government. After several controversies, President Jorge Sampaio, a member of the opposing party, dissolved the parliament. He then returned to practicing law, Santana Lopes currently heads Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa and does political commentary with former European Commissioner António Vitorino. The leadership of Santana Lopes was made difficult by a number of inherited economic, Santana Lopes himself failed to gain a reputation as a competent Prime Minister. His unusual rise to power, as Barrosos successor rather than by election, although his appointment was in fact constitutional, he was not a Member of Parliament but only a municipal leader, as the Mayor of Lisbon. The short career of Santana Lopes as Prime Minister began with members of government being shuffled between departments on the same afternoon as the government was being inaugurated. His Minister of Defense Paulo Portas looked surprised during the ceremony when he was announced as the Minister for National Defense, Portas look of surprise when the name of his office was announced was broadcast live on television. Santana Lopes announced the resignation of the government on 11 December so that his Government would assume just a role until the election. Santana Lopes left the party two days later. He then returned to the Parliament to lead PSD Parliamentary Group between 2007 and 2008, in June 2010, he was awarded the Order of Christ by President Aníbal Cavaco Silva for his work as Prime Minister of Portugal, one of his main critics when he was in office
3.
Lisbon
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Lisbon is the capital and the largest city of Portugal, with a population of 552,700 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km². Its urban area extends beyond the administrative limits with a population of around 2.7 million people. About 2.8 million people live in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area and it is continental Europes westernmost capital city and the only one along the Atlantic coast. Lisbon lies in the western Iberian Peninsula on the Atlantic Ocean, the westernmost areas of its metro area is the westernmost point of Continental Europe. Lisbon is recognised as a city because of its importance in finance, commerce, media, entertainment, arts, international trade, education. It is one of the economic centres on the continent, with a growing financial sector. Humberto Delgado Airport serves over 20 million passengers annually, as of 2015, and the motorway network, the city is the 7th-most-visited city in Southern Europe, after Istanbul, Rome, Barcelona, Madrid, Athens and Milan, with 1,740,000 tourists in 2009. The Lisbon region contributes with a higher GDP PPP per capita than any region in Portugal. Its GDP amounts to 96.3 billion USD and thus $32,434 per capita, the city occupies 32nd place of highest gross earnings in the world. Most of the headquarters of multinationals in the country are located in the Lisbon area and it is also the political centre of the country, as its seat of Government and residence of the Head of State. Lisbon is one of the oldest cities in the world, julius Caesar made it a municipium called Felicitas Julia, adding to the name Olissipo. Ruled by a series of Germanic tribes from the 5th century, in 1147, the Crusaders under Afonso Henriques reconquered the city and since then it has been a major political, economic and cultural centre of Portugal. Unlike most capital cities, Lisbons status as the capital of Portugal has never been granted or confirmed officially – by statute or in written form. Its position as the capital has formed through constitutional convention, making its position as de facto capital a part of the Constitution of Portugal. It has one of the warmest winters of any metropolis in Europe, the typical summer season lasts about four months, from June to September, although also in April temperatures sometimes reach around 25 °C. Although modern archaeological excavations show a Phoenician presence at this location since 1200 BC, another conjecture based on ancient hydronymy suggests that the name of the settlement derived from the pre-Roman appellation for the Tagus, Lisso or Lucio. Lisbons name was written Ulyssippo in Latin by the geographer Pomponius Mela and it was later referred to as Olisippo by Pliny the Elder and by the Greeks as Olissipo or Olissipona. The Indo-European Celts invaded in the 1st millennium BC, mixing with the Pre-Indo-European population and this indigenous settlement maintained commercial relations with the Phoenicians, which would account for the recent findings of Phoenician pottery and other material objects
4.
Socialist Party (Portugal)
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The Socialist Party is a social-democratic political party in Portugal. It was founded on 19 April 1973 in the German city of Bad Münstereifel, the PS is one of the two major parties in Portuguese politics, its rival being the centre-right Social Democratic Party. The current leader of the PS, and Prime Minister of Portugal, is António Costa, the party has currently 86 of 230 seats in the Portuguese Parliament following the October 2015 election, form a minority government. The Socialist Party was created at a conference of Portuguese Socialist Action, at time in exile, on 19 April 1973. The twenty-seven delegates decided to found a party of socialism and freedom, making a reference to a classless society and without Marxism. On 25 April 1974, the Carnation Revolution brought down the regime of the Estado Novo, established in 1933. The alliance failed to defeat the AD and they won the 1983 general election, but without an absolute majority, the Socialists formed a grand coalition with the centre-right Social Democratic Party, creating a Central Block. The new government began negotiations for Portugal to enter the European Economic Community, in 1985 the Central Block broke down and the PS at the time led by Almeida Santos, lost the 1985 legislative election. Cavaco Silvas PSD won the 1985 elections and again in 1987 and 1991 with absolute majority, the PS was in opposition for more than ten years. In 2001, after a defeat in the 2001 local elections, António Guterres resigned as Prime Minister. The Socialist Party lost the 2002 general election by a margin to the PSD. In December 2004, Jorge Sampaio, President of the Republic and these elections resulted in a landslide victory for the PS, winning for the first time since its foundation an absolute majority. José Sócrates, leader of the PS, became Prime Minister, in 2009, after four-and-a-half years in power, the PS lost the European Parliament elections to the PSD. However, they won the election held on 27 September. The PS later introduced and legislated same-sex marriage, the financial crisis of 2011 hit Portugal very hard, prompting Sócrates government to impose harsh austerity measures. On 23 March 2011, the opposition in Parliament said no to new measures proposed by the government. As a result of this, José Sócrates resigned as Prime Minister, in the elections, the PS suffered a huge setback, with 28. 1% of the vote, ten points behind the PSD, who formed another coalition government with the CDS-PP. Sócrates resigned as General Secretary on election night after the PSs worst result since 1987, on 23 July 2011, António José Seguro was elected as Sócrates successor
5.
Alma mater
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Alma mater is an allegorical Latin phrase for a university or college. In modern usage, it is a school or university which an individual has attended, the phrase is variously translated as nourishing mother, nursing mother, or fostering mother, suggesting that a school provides intellectual nourishment to its students. Before its modern usage, Alma mater was a title in Latin for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele. The source of its current use is the motto, Alma Mater Studiorum, of the oldest university in continuous operation in the Western world and it is related to the term alumnus, denoting a university graduate, which literally means a nursling or one who is nourished. The phrase can also denote a song or hymn associated with a school, although alma was a common epithet for Ceres, Cybele, Venus, and other mother goddesses, it was not frequently used in conjunction with mater in classical Latin. Alma Redemptoris Mater is a well-known 11th century antiphon devoted to Mary, the earliest documented English use of the term to refer to a university is in 1600, when University of Cambridge printer John Legate began using an emblem for the universitys press. In English etymological reference works, the first university-related usage is often cited in 1710, many historic European universities have adopted Alma Mater as part of the Latin translation of their official name. The University of Bologna Latin name, Alma Mater Studiorum, refers to its status as the oldest continuously operating university in the world. At least one, the Alma Mater Europaea in Salzburg, Austria, the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, has been called the Alma Mater of the Nation because of its ties to the founding of the United States. At Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, the ancient Roman world had many statues of the Alma Mater, some still extant. Modern sculptures are found in prominent locations on several American university campuses, outside the United States, there is an Alma Mater sculpture on the steps of the monumental entrance to the Universidad de La Habana, in Havana, Cuba. Media related to Alma mater at Wikimedia Commons The dictionary definition of alma mater at Wiktionary Alma Mater Europaea website
6.
University of Lisbon
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The University of Lisbon is a public research university in Lisbon, and the largest university in Portugal. It was founded in 2013, from the merger of two public universities located in Lisbon, the former University of Lisbon and the Technical University of Lisbon. The history of a university in Lisbon dates back to the 13th century, the merger process was initiated in 2011 and was made into law on December 31,2012. As stated on the decree-law No, 266-E/2012, the new University of Lisbon began its legal existence on the day the newly elected rector took office, on July 25,2013. According to the Academic Ranking of World Universities 2014 also known as Shanghai Ranking, in the discipline of Engineering/Technology and Computer Sciences, the university is ranked 76-100 worldwide. List of universities in Portugal Higher education in Portugal Official website
Grand-Cross of the Order of Bernardo O'Higgins, Chile (30 September 2001)[6]
