Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos

In this Portuguese name, the first or maternal family name is Martins and the second or paternal family name is Rodrigues dos Santos.
Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos
President of CDS – People's Party
In office
26 January 2020 – 3 April 2022
Preceded byAssunção Cristas
Succeeded byNuno Melo
President of the People's Youth
In office
13 December 2015 – 26 January 2020
Preceded byMiguel Pires da Silva
Succeeded byFrancisco Mota
Personal details
Born (1988-09-29) 29 September 1988 (age 36)
Coimbra, Portugal
Political partyCDS – People's Party (since 2007)
Alma materUniversity of Lisbon

Francisco José Nina Martins Rodrigues dos Santos[1] (born 29 September 1988) is a Portuguese conservative politician and a lawyer. He was elected President of the CDS – People's Party in the National Congress of the Party in Aveiro, with 46% of the votes.[2][3] In 2018, he was selected as one of the Forbes 30 Under 30 in Europe for law and policy.[4]

Political career

Rodrigues dos Santos is the eldest of three sons from Coimbra, born to an army officer father and lawyer mother. When he was five, the family moved to Vila Nova da Barquinha in the Santarém District due to his father's work.[5] He studied Law in the Faculty of Law at the University of Lisbon, and is a lawyer and consultant at Valadas Coriel & Associates, a law firm based in Lisbon. He started his political career in the People's Youth, becoming president of the same organisation in 2015. After five years leading the People's Youth, he decided to stand for the leadership of the CDS – People's Party after poor general election results.[6] He now presents himself as the "young conservative".[7]

In the 2013 local elections, he led the PSD-CDS-MPT coalition in the Lisbon parish of Carnide, and was elected.[5] Four years later, he was voted onto the city's municipal assembly as the lead candidate of a CDS-MPT-PPM coalition, and resigned in February 2020.[1] In 2021, he was elected onto the same assembly in Oliveira do Hospital in his native Coimbra District.[5]

He is the youngest of the Portuguese political leaders. He has, however, been unable to assert his authority on the party and his leadership has been challenged various times.[8] After his party was unable to elect a single deputy in the 2022 Portuguese legislative election, Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos announced his resignation from CDS-PP's leadership.[9] He was succeeded by MEP Nuno Melo in April 2022.[10]

During the 2022 election campaign, Rodrigues dos Santos made headlines for a video in which he made an allegory between Christmas dinner and the parties of the Portuguese right: Liberal Initiative was a hipster cousin who shares different values from the rest of the family, Chega was a cousin with poor table manners, and PSD was an absent brother, spending the holiday with his left-wing family.[11][12]

Personal life

Rodrigues dos Santos befriended the son of the prime minister of Portugal António Costa at university.[5] He is a fan of Sporting CP; when the club were on a 19-year title drought, he likened their fortunes to those of his party.[5] He married Inês Guerra Vargas in 2021.[5]

Electoral history

CDS–PP leadership election, 2020

Ballot: 26 January 2020
Candidate Votes %
Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos 671 46.5
João Almeida 562 39.0
Filipe Lobo d'Ávila 209 14.5
Blank/Invalid ballots 7 –
Turnout 1,449
Source: CDS Congress[13]

Legislative election, 2022

Main article: 2022 Portuguese legislative election
Ballot: 30 January 2022
Party Candidate Votes % Seats +/−
PS António Costa 2,302,601 41.4 120 +12
PSD Rui Rio 1,618,381 29.1 77 –2
Chega André Ventura 399,659 7.2 12 +11
IL João Cotrim Figueiredo 273,687 4.9 8 +7
BE Catarina Martins 244,603 4.4 5 –14
CDU Jerónimo de Sousa 238,920 4.3 6 –6
CDS–PP Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos 89,181 1.6 0 –5
PAN Inês Sousa Real 88,152 1.6 1 –3
Livre Rui Tavares 71,232 1.3 1 ±0
Other parties 91,299 1.6 0 ±0
Blank/Invalid ballots 146,824 2.6 – –
Turnout 5,564,539 51.46 230 ±0
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições[14]

References

  1. ^ a b "Deputado Municipal Francisco José Nina Rodrigues dos Santos (CDS-PP)" (in Portuguese). Lisbon Municipal Assembly. 28 February 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  2. ^ "Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos: "hoje ganhou o CDS"". Jornal de Notícias. 26 January 2020. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
  3. ^ Rodrigues, Sofia; Pimenta, Paulo; Vieira, Álvaro (26 January 2020). "Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos é o novo líder do CDS. Moção teve 46% dos votos". Público. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
  4. ^ "Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos". Forbes.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Macedo, Elisa (23 January 2022). "Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos, o jovem líder do CDS da ala conservadora e fã de Zeca Afonso" (in Portuguese). SIC Notícias. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  6. ^ Martinho, Maria. "Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos candidata-se à liderança do CDS para que se volte a acreditar no partido". Observador (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 27 January 2020.
  7. ^ "Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos, o jota conservador". Jornal Expresso (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 27 January 2020.
  8. ^ "Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos não se demite e convoca Conselho Nacional". Observador.
  9. ^ "Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos demite-se de presidente do CDS-PP". Diário de Notícias.
  10. ^ "Nuno Melo vence Comissão Política com 75% dos votos". www.dn.pt (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 12 April 2022.
  11. ^ "Líder do CDS e a ceia de Natal da direita. A "prima moderninha", o "primo sem maneiras" e o "irmão desaparecido"". Diário de Notícias (in Portuguese). 24 December 2021. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  12. ^ ""Ceia de Natal da Direita". CDS usa mensagem com ironia e caricaturas" (in Portuguese). Rádio e Televisão de Portugal. 24 December 2021. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  13. ^ "Moção de Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos votada no Congresso do CDS" (in Portuguese). Público. 26 January 2020. Retrieved 10 August 2024.
  14. ^ "Mapa Oficial n.º 1/2022" (PDF). Comissão Nacional de Eleições. 26 March 2022. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 April 2022. Retrieved 1 April 2022.