Francisco Pinto Balsemão

Francisco Pinto Balsemão

Prime Minister of Portugal
Order:	113th (59th of the Republic, 11th since the Carnation Revolution)
Term of Office	9 January 1981 - 9 June 1983
Predecessor:	Diogo Freitas do Amaral
Successor:	Mário Soares
Date of Birth	1 September 1937
Place of Birth:	Lisbon
Wife:	(1st) Maria Isabel de Lacerda Pinto da Costa Lobo (divorced) (2nd) María de las Mercedes Aliú y Presas
Occupation:	Journalist, newspaper editor, newspaper administrator, Chief Executive Officer of Impresa media group, Chairman of the European Publishers Council
Religion:	Catholic (formerly); Atheist (currently)
Political Party:	Social Democratic

Francisco José Pereira Pinto Balsemão, GCC (b. Lisbon, 1 September 1937), is a former Prime Minister of Portugal, who served from 1981 to 1983.

Background

He is the son of Henrique Patrício de Balsemão (b. Guarda, 9 September 1897) and wife (m. Lisbon on 21 May 1922) Maria Adelaide van Zeller de Castro Pereira (Sintra, 11 August 1897), granddaughter in male line of an adulterine son of King Pedro IV of Portugal. He is of sometimes remote and sometimes from many lines Portuguese, Spanish, English, German, Dutch, French and Italian descent.

Career

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

Pinto Balsemão made his political debut following the Carnation Revolution in 1974, when, together with Francisco de Sá Carneiro, Joaquim Magalhães Mota, Carlos Mota Pinto, João Mota Amaral and António 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 Balsemão 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 Balsemão held senior positions in two cabinets led by Prime Minister Sá Carneiro.

When Sá Carneiro was killed in an air accident on 4 December 1980, the Social Democratic Party chose Pinto Balsemão to succeed him. Despite his reputation for competence, he was widely perceived as lacking Sá Carneiro's charisma. He had difficulty maintaining the level of support enjoyed by his party, which had been based to a large extent on Sá 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.

Pinto Balsemão currently serves as Chairman of the European Publishers Council and as Chief Executive Officer of Grupo Impresa in Portugal. He is also a member of the Bilderberg Group, and as such has attracted some controversy.

He was the founder on 6 October 1992 of Sociedade Independente de Comunicação (SIC), the first Portuguese private network.

He is also a Member of the Portuguese Council of State, elected by the Assembly of the Republic.

Family

He married firstly, later divorced, Maria Isabel de Lacerda Pinto da Costa Lobo, daughter of Manuel da Costa Lobo Cardoso (Vila Real, 15 November 1907 –), and wife Maria Amélia de Lacerda Pinto (Malanje –), remarried to José da Franca de Horta Machado Guedes Leitão Cruz (Lisbon, 18 October 1947 –), without issue, and had two children:

• Mónica da Costa Lobo Pinto Balsemão, married to Filipe Pereira Caldas Penaguião, son of António Manuel de Paula Morando Penaguião (Lisbon, 20 June 1935 –), of Italian descent on his male line great-great-great-grandfather surnamed Penachioni and female line descendant of the old Nobility of the Court, and wife Maria João da Costa Pereira Caldas (Lisbon, 17 June 1945 –), from a Family of old Lisbon Bourgeoisie, and had two children:
• Tomás Pinto Balsemão Penaguião
• Marta Pinto Balsemão Penaguião
• Henrique da Costa Lobo Pinto Balsemão, Director of Programs of SIC, unmarried and without issue

He married secondly María de las Mercedes Aliú y Presas and had two children:

• Joana Presas Pinto Balsemão, born in Lisbon, São Sebastião da Pedreira, on 25 June 1976, married to Francisco de Atouguia Belford Correia da Silva, born in Lisbon on 31 October 1974, son of Pedro de Barros Belford Correia da Silva (Luanda, 24 April 1946 –), of the Counts (formerly Viscounts) de Paço de Arcos, of remote English ancestry, and first wife (as her first husband) (m. Lisbon, 6 October 1972 and divorced) Margarida Maria de Castro de Atouguia (Lisbon, Santos-o-Velho, 30 October 1948 –), of the Viscounts of Atouguia, and had three children:
• Francisco Pinto Balsemão Correia da Silva, born in Oeiras, Paço de Arcos, on 29 June 2001
• Teresa Pinto Balsemão Correia da Silva, born in Lisbon on 9 November 2004
• Pedro Pinto Balsemão Correia da Silva, born in Lisbon on 24 August 2007
• Francisco Pedro Presas Pinto Balsemão, unmarried and without issue

Out of wedlock he had a son by Isabel Maria Supico Pinto, born in Lisbon on 26 October 1942, second wife in São Paulo, São Paulo, on 9 June 1976, without issue of Vasco Maria Vasques da Cunha d' Eça da Costa e Almeida, 3rd Viscount of Maiorca (b. Lisbon, Encarnação, 12 May 1923), daughter of Clotário Luís Supico Ribeiro Pinto (1909-1986), son of Liberato Pinto, and first wife as her second husband actress Maria Adelaide da Silva Lalande, born in Castelo Branco, Salgueiro do Campo, on 7 November 1913 and died in Lisbon on 21 March 1968, former wife of actor Ribeirinho:

• Francisco Maria Supico Pinto Balsemão, unmarried and without issue

Ancestors