As a student at the
University of Coimbra, he was elected president of the
Academic Association of Coimbra. He would be dismissed because he refused to support the
Estado Novo regime. In 1945, he became one of the founders of the youth wing of the
Movement of Democratic Unity (Portuguese:
Movimento de Unidade Democrática – Juvenil or "MUD-J"), a movement that spanned all anti-Fascist opposition groups. His "subversive" actions got him imprisoned several times. Later, he supported the presidential candidacy of
Norton de Matos, following which he met
Mário Soares. In the next election he supported
Humberto Delgado. After that he joined several Socialist movements, and in 1973 he co-founded the
Socialist Party. As a staunch anti-fascist, he gained popularity for defending people accused of supporting
anti-fascism and
anti-colonialism. After the
Carnation Revolution, he was the
Minister of Justice in the first four democratic governments and
Minister of Finance in the fifth. He was a member of the commission which legalized divorce in Portugal in consultation with the
Holy See. Between 1974 and 1982, he was a registered member of the
Portuguese Socialist Party. From 1977 to 1983 he was a member of the
European Parliament, representing Porto. In 1980, he had a falling out with his old friend Mário Soares, stemming from the party supporting
Ramalho Eanes in the presidential election. In 1986, he stood as a presidential candidate with support from the
Portuguese Communist Party and the
Democratic Renovator Party. However, he failed to reach the second round and thereafter virtually disappeared from the political scene. He died of cancer on 1 November 1993. == Electoral history ==