Up for auction "Prime Minister of Portugal" Jose Socrates Hand Signed 4x6 Color Photo. This piece come authenticated by Todd Mueller, and comes with their COA. Any questions please do not hesitate to ask. ES-7637 José Sócrates Carvalho Pinto de Sousa, GCIH (born 6
September 1957), commonly known as José Sócrates (Portuguese
pronunciation: [ʒuˈzɛ ˈsɔkɾɐtɨʃ]), is
a Portuguese politician who was the Prime Minister of Portugal from
12 March 2005 to 21 June 2011. For the second half of 2007, he acted as
the President-in-Office of the
Council of the European Union. Sócrates grew up in the industrial
city of Covilhã. He joined the centre-left Socialist Party in
1981 and was elected Member of Parliament in 1987.
Sócrates entered the government in 1995, as Secretary of State for Environment
in the first cabinet of António Guterres. Two
years later, he became Minister of Youth and Sports (where he helped to
organize Portugal's successful bid to host UEFA Euro 2004) and in 1999 became Minister for Environment.
Sócrates prominence rose during the governments of António Guterres to the
point that when the Prime Minister resigned in 2001, he considered to appoint
Sócrates as his successor. In
opposition, José Sócrates was elected leader of the Socialist Party in 2004 and
led the party to its first absolute majority in the 2005
election. By then, Portugal was living an economic crisis, marked by
stagnation and a difficult state of public finances. Like the preceding
centre-right government, Sócrates implemented a policy of fiscal austerity and
structural reforms. Among the most important reforms were the 2007 Social
Security reform and the 2009 labour law reform. His government also
restructured the provision of public services, closing thousands of elementary
schools[6] and dozens of health care facilities and
maternity wards in rural areas and small cities. Despite austerity, Sócrates's
government intended to boost economic growth through government-sponsored
investments, namely in transportation, technology and energy as well as in
health and school infrastructure. The government launched several public–private partnerships to
finance such projects. Internally, Sócrates was accused of having an
authoritarian style and of trying to control media, while internationally
he completed the negotiations of Lisbon Treaty and had close ties with leaders such
as the Prime Minister of Spain José Luis Rodriguez
Zapatero and the President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez. The first Sócrates government was initially
able to reduce the budget deficit and controlling public debt, but
economic growth lagged. In 2008–09, with the Great Recession starting to hit Portugal and facing
recession and high unemployment, austerity was waned as part of the European economic stimulus
lan. Nevertheless, support for Sócrates and the Socialists eroded
and the ruling party lost its majority in the 2009
election. The second government of José Sócrates faced a
deterioration of the economic and financial state of the country, with
skyrocketing deficit and growing debt. Austerity was resumed in 2010 while the
country entered a hard
financial crisis in the context of the European debt crisis.
On 23 March 2011, Sócrates submitted his resignation to President Aníbal Cavaco Silva after
the Parliament rejected a new austerity package (the fourth in a year), leading
to the 2011 snap
election. Financial status of the country deteriorated and on 6
April Sócrates caretaker government requested a bail-out program which was
conceded. The €78 billion IMF/European
Union bailout to Portugal thus started and would last until May
2014. Sócrates lost the snap election held on 5 June 2011 and resigned as
Secretary-General of the Socialist Party. For most of his political career, Sócrates was
associated to several corruption cases, notably Independente University and
Freeport cases.
On 21 November 2014 he was arrested in Lisbon, accused of corruption, tax evasion, and money laundering, becoming the first former Prime Minister in
the history of the country to be thus accused. On 24 November Sócrates was
remanded in custody on preliminary charges of corruption and tax fraud. He was
held in Évora prison until 4 September 2015 when he left the
prison for a relative's house in Lisbon, where he remained under house arrest
until 16 October 2015 That day, a judge released him from house arrest,
allowing him to await the end of the investigation in freedom, although
remaining forbidden of leaving the country and of contacting with other
suspects of the case. The police investigation, known as Operation
Marquis continued until his indictment in October 2017. In 2018, Sócrates
abandoned the Socialist Party. |