He joined the
Socialist Party in 1982. That same year, he was appointed chief of staff to the Secretary of State for Transport in the
9th Constitutional Government of Portugal, Francisco Murteira Nabo (1983–1985). His next executive experience was in
Macau, where he was head of the office of the Macao Deputy Secretary of State for Social Affairs, Education and Youth (1988–1989) and, now in government in the same region, as Deputy Secretary for Education and Public Administration (1989–1991). After returning to Portugal, he was the Socialist "machine man". Very close to
António Guterres, he played an active role in Guterres' election as secretary-general of the
Socialist Party, in elections won over
Jorge Sampaio. He then managed the entire structure that mounted the
Socialist Party's successful electoral campaign in the
legislative elections of 1995. In the first government led by
António Guterres, the
13th Constitutional Government of Portugal, which took office on 28 October 1995, he became deputy minister. In the reshuffle of 25 November 1997, he became
Minister of Internal Administration. One of the initiatives he took as deputy minister was the creation of the Citizen's Shop. Together with his Secretary of State for Public Administration,
Fausto Correia, he launched the concept of the Citizen's Shop in Portugal, a service centre for various public entities, bringing together and connecting services in a single space. In the legislative elections that followed, on
10 October 1999, the
Socialist Party (PS) won again (with
António Guterres as leader of the
PS and
Durão Barroso as leader of the
PSD) with the unusual situation of reaching 115 deputies, exactly half the number of deputies in the
Assembly of the Republic, just one off from an absolute majority. Also in these elections, Jorge Coelho took on the role of leading the organisation of the electoral campaign. In the
14th Constitutional Government of Portugal, after the
1999 legislative elections, he took up the posts of
Minister of the Presidency and
Minister of Social Infrastructure (Public Works). In the reshuffle of 14 September 2000, he retained the post of
Minister of Social Infrastructure and left the post of
Minister of the Presidency to become
Minister of State. Following the
collapse of the Hintze Ribeiro Bridge in Entre-os-Rios,
Castelo de Paiva, on 4 March 2001, in which 59 people died, he resigned from the government, "taking political responsibility" for the accident and that "it wouldn't sit well with my conscience if I didn't". His last decision in office was to call for an enquiry because "guilt cannot die alone". On 10 March 2001, he was replaced by
Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues as
Minister of Social Infrastructure. After leaving the government, he continued to play a central role in the PS and also coordinated the electoral campaign for the
legislative elections on 20 February 2005, in which the PS won its first absolute majority, and also for the
local elections in October 2005. In November 2006, he resigned as a member of parliament and gave up all party posts to devote himself to his professional activity. == Post-political career ==