Barroso, José Manuel Durão, 1956-, Portuguese politician, b. Lisbon. A leftist activist while in law school, he became a Social Democrat in 1980 and was first elected to the Portuguese parliament in 1985. He served as foreign minister from 1992 to 1995, and in 1999 became Social Democratic party leader. As premier (2002-4) of a coalition center-right government, he enacted an unpopular austerity program to reduce the budget deficit and supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He resigned in 2004 after he was chosen as a compromise candidate to succeed Romano Prodi as president of the European Commission, the European Union's executive body.