On 24 January 2016, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was
elected as
President of Portugal in the first round of voting. He stood as an independent, appealing for moderation and cross-party consensus. During his election campaign, he promised to repair political divisions and the hardship of Portugal's 2011–14 bailout. Unlike his predecessor,
Aníbal Cavaco Silva, he had never previously held a top state position. In March 2020, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa asked parliament to authorize a
state of emergency to contain the
COVID-19 pandemic; this marked the first time the country declared a state of emergency nationwide in 46 years of democratic history. In December 2020, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa announced his intention to run for office again in the
2021 Portuguese presidential election. Marcelo was re-elected president in January 2021, with 60.7% of the votes, the third highest vote margin ever in presidential elections in Portugal since the
Carnation Revolution. He was also the first candidate ever to win the vote in all
municipalities, ranging from 51.3% in the
Beja District to 72.16% in
Madeira. During his presidency, Rebelo de Sousa has publicly supported making restitution and acknowledging abuses made during Portugal's colonialist history and the country's role in the
Atlantic slave trade.
State visits Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa made his first visit as President of Portugal to the Vatican City to meet
Pope Francis and the
Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin on 17 March 2016, followed the same day by a trip to Portugal's neighbour Spain to meet King
Felipe VI. In 2019, he joined
President Emmanuel Macron for the traditional
Bastille Day military parade in Paris, which honoured European military cooperation and the
European Intervention Initiative that year.
Health In December 2017, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa underwent emergency surgery at
Curry Cabral Hospital in order to treat an incarcerated
umbilical hernia. The procedure was performed by , a friend of the president. He was discharged from the hospital and lauded the Portuguese National Health Service, considering it an important achievement of Portuguese democracy. In June 2018, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was briefly hospitalized after he collapsed after a visit to
Bom Jesus do Monte sanctuary in
Braga; the incident was caused by a sudden drop in
blood pressure alongside acute
gastroenteritis. In October 2019, he underwent planned
cardiac catheterization at Santa Cruz Hospital, Carnaxide, in the outskirts of Lisbon, after accumulated calcium was detected in one of his coronary arteries. On 8 March 2020, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa suspended all his public agenda and returned to his private home in
Cascais, entering a voluntary quarantine period for 14 days after being revealed that a group of students from
Felgueiras, who had visited
Belém Palace some days before, had also been quarantined after a positive case of
COVID-19 was detected in their school. Marcelo subsequently tested negative for the virus and worked remotely for a period during the COVID-19 pandemic. in 2021, during the
COVID-19 pandemic On 11 January 2021, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa tested positive for COVID-19, after a contact with a positive case in his staff. He was reportedly asymptomatic, and canceled his appointments, opting to remain in
self-isolation. Three further COVID-19 tests yielded negative results. Some physicians said that a
false positive PCR-RT test, although possible, was unlikely, On 13 January, however, the
Lisbon and Tagus Valley regional public health authority confirmed that the president was considered to have had a low-risk exposure, and was therefore simply under
passive surveillance for two weeks: the president was instructed that he could resume his agenda save for any events in crowded public places. In December 2021, he underwent planned surgery to remove two inguinal hernias at the Military Hospital in Lisbon. On 5 July 2023, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa collapsed during a visit to the
NOVA University School of Science and Technology, in
Almada. He was taken to Santa Cruz Hospital "as a precaution". His chief of staff, Fernando Frutuoso de Melo, assured the situation was probably due to the heat and to the president's "heavy schedule". After being submitted to several medical exams, the president was discharged four hours later, with a
Holter monitor, and addressed journalists on his way out from the hospital, saying he had had an episode of
low blood pressure since he had skipped lunch — as he usually does, replacing it with Fortimel, a medical nutrition supplement — and had been offered a glass of warm
moscatel shortly before he fainted that "must have upset, probably, [his] digestion". The physicians recommended rest, though the president's personal physician, Daniel de Matos, remarked their recommendation would in all likelihood fall on deaf ears. His scheduled presence at several events was nonetheless cancelled until 9 July, but the president recorded video messages to be displayed at those events. Only indoor audiences at Belém Palace remained scheduled. On 1 December 2025, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was admitted to
University Hospital of São João, in
Porto, for urgent surgery due to an incarcerated
hernia, after feeling unwell. ==Personal life==