Early years Cavaco Silva joined the
Social Democratic Party in 1974. Between 1980 and 1981, he was finance minister under Prime Minister
Francisco Sá Carneiro's government. Five years later, in 1985, Cavaco Silva was elected party leader. At the time, it was also the largest majority that a Portuguese party had ever won in a free election.
François Mitterrand, 1989 Although the occurrence of economic growth and a
public debt relatively well-contained as a result of the number of civil servants was increased from 485,368 in 1988 to 509,732 in 1991, which was a much lower increase than that which took place in the following years until 2011 marked by irrational and unsustainable State employment, from 1988 to 1993, during the government cabinets led by Cavaco Silva, the Portuguese economy was radically changed. As a result, there was a sharp and rapid decrease in the output of
tradable goods and a rise in the importance of the
non-tradable goods sector in the Portuguese economy. In the
1991 election Cavaco Silva's party had a majority even larger (50.6 per cent) than the one of four years earlier. After 10 years in office, he decided not to run for another term as party leader, not contesting the
1995 election, and the PSD, lacking a leader of his stature, lost 48 seats and the election to the Socialists.
Post-premiership Cavaco Silva contested the
1996 presidential election but was defeated by the Mayor of
Lisbon,
Jorge Sampaio, the Socialist candidate. Retiring from politics, he served for several years as an advisor to the board of the
Banco de Portugal (Bank of Portugal) but retired from this position in 2004. He then became a full professor at the School of Economics and Management of the
Catholic University of Portugal, where he taught the undergraduate and MBA programs. He is a member of the
Club of Madrid and an honorary member of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation.
President of the Republic ,
Lula da Silva, in 2007. On 20 October 2005, Cavaco Silva announced his candidacy for the 2006 presidential election. He was elected President of the Republic on
22 January 2006 with 50.6% of votes cast, avoiding a run-off. He is the first elected
center-right president in Portugal since 1974. He is also the second former prime minister to be elected president, after
Mário Soares. in New Delhi, 11 January 2007 He was sworn in on 9 March 2006, becoming Portugal's first right-of-centre head of state in three decades. He is also the president of the
Portuguese Council of State. Cavaco Silva's term was initially marked by a mutual understanding with the government led by Socialist
José Sócrates, which he referred to as "strategic cooperation". The most controversial moment of his presidency was when the Assembly of the Republic passed a bill for the holding of a pre-legislative referendum on the legalization of abortion in Portugal without any restrictions in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. After the parliamentary approval of the bill summoning the referendum, Cavaco Silva referred the matter to the Portuguese Constitutional Court, which declared both the proposed legalization and the referendum constitutional by a narrow 7–6 margin. Cavaco Silva, who could still have vetoed the referendum bill, decided to sign it into law and thus allowed the referendum. The majority of the Portuguese electorate abstained from the referendum, but the vote for legalization prevailed among those who chose to cast their ballot.
Barack Obama in
Lisbon, 2010. Cavaco Silva was
reelected president of Portugal on 23 January 2011 with 52,92% of the vote, and he took office for his second five-year term on 9 March 2011.
2015 constitutional crisis At the
general election on 4 October 2015 to the
Assembly of the Republic, the unicameral Portuguese parliament, the right-wing government of Prime Minister
Pedro Passos Coelho lost its majority, with centre-left and far-left opposition parties gaining more than half of the seats. As Passos Coelho's own
Social Democratic Party remained the largest in parliament, and still had the support of the much smaller
CDS – People's Party, Cavaco Silva allowed Passos Coelho to continue as prime minister, giving him the first chance to form a new government. Passos Coelho was unable to find any new partners and was widely expected to stand down, but on 22 October Cavaco Silva invited him to form a new government, even if it were a minority government. On 24 October Cavaco Silva explained his thinking:
António Costa, leader of the Socialist Party, called this a grave mistake and added "It is unacceptable to usurp the exclusive powers of parliament. The Socialists will not take lessons from Professor Cavaco Silva on the defence of our democracy." The Green politician
Rui Tavares commented "The president has created a constitutional crisis. He is saying that he will never allow the formation of a government containing Leftists and Communists. People are amazed by what has happened." The opposition parties quickly announced their intention to bring down the new government in a motion of rejection. ==Family==