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His Excellency Francisco Pinto Balsemao GCC GCIH GCL GO
Balsemao in 1982.
Prime Minister of Portugal
In office 9 January 1981 ? 9 June 1983
President	Antonio Ramalho Eanes
Deputy	Diogo Freitas do Amaral
Preceded by	Francisco Sa Carneiro
Succeeded by	Mario Soares
President of the Social Democratic Party
In office 13 December 1980 ? 27 February 1983
Secretary-General	Antonio Capucho
Preceded by	Francisco Sa Carneiro
Succeeded by	Nuno Rodrigues dos Santos
Minister of Social Affairs
In office 3 August 1981 ? 4 September 1981
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Joao Morais Leitao
Succeeded by	Carlos Macedo
Minister in the Cabinet of the Prime Minister
In office 3 January 1980 ? 9 January 1981
Prime Minister	Francisco Sa Carneiro
Preceded by	Manuel da Costa Bras
Succeeded by	Basilio Horta
Member of the Assembly of the Republic
In office 4 November 1985 ? 12 August 1987
Constituency	Lisbon
In office 3 June 1976 ? 12 November 1980
Constituency	Porto
In office 2 June 1975 ? 2 April 1976
Constituency	Lisbon
Personal details
Born	( 1937-09-01 ) 1 September 1937 (age 86) Lisbon , Portugal
Political party	Social Democratic Party
Alma mater	University of Lisbon
Occupation	Journalist, newspaper editor, newspaper administrator, chief executive officer of Impresa media group , chair of the european publishers council
Signature

Francisco Jose Pereira Pinto Balsemao ( Portuguese pronunciation: [f????si?ku ?p?tu βals??m??w] ; born 1 September 1937) is a Portuguese businessman, former journalist and retired politician, who served as Prime Minister of Portugal , from 1981 to 1983.

Background [ edit ]

Pinto Balsemao is the son of Henrique Patricio Pinto Balsemao ( Guarda , 9 September 1897 ? ?) and wife (married Lisbon, 21 May 1922) Maria Adelaide van Zeller de Castro Pereira ( Sintra , 11 August 1897 ? 2 March 1984).

Career [ edit ]

Being a licentiate in Law from the University of Lisbon , Pinto Balsemao's pre-political career was in newspaper publishing. After working as a journalist and then as an administrator of Diario Popular (the People's Daily in English) from 1963 to 1971, he founded the Expresso magazine in 1973 and continued to direct it until 1980. He is one of top managers and owners of Impresa media group.

Pinto Balsemao was Member of parliament before the revolution (1969?1973), when, together with Francisco Sa Carneiro , Joaquim Magalhaes Mota , Carlos Mota Pinto , Joao Bosco Mota Amaral , Alberto Joao Jardim , Antonio Barbosa de Melo and Antonio Marques Mendes , he helped to found the Social Democratic Party (PSD), of which he is currently member number 1. In 1975 he was elected to the Constituent Assembly , which was charged with drafting a new constitution and served as an interim legislature. Pinto Balsemao was chosen as a Vice-President of this body.

Following the victory of the Democratic Alliance (a coalition led by the PSD) in two parliamentary elections (in 1979 and 1980), Pinto Balsemao held senior positions in two cabinets led by Prime Minister Sa Carneiro.

When Sa Carneiro was killed in an air accident on 4 December 1980, the Social Democratic Party chose Pinto Balsemao to succeed him. Despite his reputation for competence, he was widely perceived as lacking Sa Carneiro's charisma. He had difficulty maintaining the level of support enjoyed by his party, which had been based to a large extent on Sa Carneiro's personal popularity. He also had to cope with friction within the Democratic Alliance, and found the Democratic and Social Centre leader, Diogo Freitas do Amaral , a difficult ally. These factors contributed to his defeat in the parliamentary election of 1983. He finally retired from Parliament in 1987 though not from politics.

Pinto Balsemao currently serves as Chairman of the European Publishers Council ^[1] and as chief executive officer of Impresa media group in Portugal. He was the founder on 6 October 1992 of Sociedade Independente de Comunicacao (SIC), the first Portuguese private television network.

He is also a member of Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group , and as such has attracted some controversy. He participated in more than 30 Bilderberg-Conferences since 1981.

He was also a Member of the Portuguese Council of State , elected by the Assembly of the Republic and chosen by the then President of the Republic , his fellow party colleague and former president of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), Anibal Cavaco Silva .

Family [ edit ]

He married firstly and divorced Maria Isabel de Lacerda Pinto da Costa Lobo, daughter of Manuel da Costa Lobo Cardoso ( Vila Real , Vila Real , 15 November 1907 ? ?), Director-General of the Banco de Angola , and wife (married Luanda , 20 October 1934) Maria Amelia de Lacerda Rebelo Pinto ( Quissol , Malanje ? ?), and had two children:

• Monica da Costa Lobo Pinto Balsemao, married to Filipe Pereira Caldas Penaguiao (born Luanda, 8 September 1963), son of Antonio Manuel de Paula Morando Penaguiao (born Lisbon, 20 June 1935), of Italian descent, and wife Maria Joao da Costa Pereira Caldas (born Lisbon, 17 June 1945), and had two children (Tomas Pinto Balsemao Penaguiao and Marta Pinto Balsemao Penaguiao).
• Henrique da Costa Lobo Pinto Balsemao, Director of Programs of SIC, married on 29 April 2006 to Vera Cravinho, and had three children:
  • Maria Cravinho Pinto Balsemao.
  • Concha Cravinho Pinto Balsemao.
  • Vicente Cravinho Pinto Balsemao (born 2010).

He married secondly Maria Mercedes Aliu Presas, of Spanish descent, and had two children:

• Joana Presas Pinto Balsemao (born Lisbon, Sao Sebastiao da Pedreira, 25 June 1976), married to Francisco de Atouguia Belford Correia da Silva (born Lisbon, 31 October 1974), son of Pedro de Barros Belford Correia da Silva (born Luanda, 24 April 1946), of the Counts (formerly Viscounts ) of Paco de Arcos , of remote English ancestry, and first wife (as her first husband) Margarida Maria de Castro de Atouguia (born Lisbon, Santos-o-Velho, 30 October 1948), of the Viscounts of Atouguia , and had three children (Francisco Pinto Balsemao Correia da Silva (born Oeiras , Paco de Arcos, 29 June 2001), Teresa Pinto Balsemao Correia da Silva (born Lisbon, 9 November 2004) and Pedro Pinto Balsemao Correia da Silva (born Lisbon, 24 August 2007)). She went to St Julian's School in Carcavelos.
• Francisco Pedro Presas Pinto Balsemao, unmarried and without issue.

Out of wedlock he had a son by Isabel Maria Supico Pinto (born Lisbon, 26 October 1942), second wife without issue of Vasco Maria Vasques da Cunha d'Eca da Costa e Almeida, 3rd Viscount of Maiorca (Lisbon, Encarnacao, 12 May 1923 ? 16 January 2018), natural daughter of Minister Clotario Luis Supico Pinto (1909?1990, 937th Associate of the Second Tauromachic Club, son of Liberato Damiao Ribeiro Pinto and Maria Augusta Supico), by actress Maria Adelaide da Silva Lalande ( Castelo Branco , Salgueiro do Campo , 7 November 1913 ? Lisbon, 21 March 1968), wife of actor Ribeirinho :

• Francisco Maria Supico Pinto Balsemao, married Ana Duarte and had two daughters:
  • Isabel Duarte Pinto Balsemao.
  • Luisa Duarte Pinto Balsemao.

Honours [ edit ]

National [ edit ]

• Grand Cross of the Order of Christ (GCC, 8 June 1983) ^[2]
• Grand Cross of the Order of Prince Henry (GCIH, 5 January 2006) ^[2]
• Grand Cross of the Order of Liberty (GCL, 25 April 2011) ^[2]
• Grand Officer of the Order Merit (GOM, 17 October 1983) ^[2]

Foreign [ edit ]

•   Belgium : Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown (23 November 1981) ^[2]
•   Brazil : Grand Cross of the National Order of the Southern Cross (25 November 1981) ^[2]
•   Greece : Grand Cross of the Order of Merit (8 September 1982) ^[2]
•   Hungary : Grand Cross Order of the Flag of the Republic of Hungary (26 November 1982) ^[2]
•   Italy : Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (2 December 1982) ^[2]
•   Holy See : Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Pope Pius IX (15 March 1983) ^[2]
•   Spain : Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic (20 March 1989) ^[2]
•   Yugoslavia : Grand Cross of the Order of the Yugoslav Flag (8 June 1983) ^[2]

External links [ edit ]

Media related to Francisco Pinto Balsemao at Wikimedia Commons

• Francisco Pinto Balsemao in GeneAll.net

References [ edit ]