1. Jorge Sampaio served as the Mayor of Lisbon from 1990 to 1995 and High-Representative for the United Nations' Alliance of Civilizations between 2007 and 2013.
57 Facts About Jorge Sampaio
1. 2.
Jorge Sampaio was an opponent to the dictatorship of Estado Novo.
3.
Jorge Sampaio participated in the student crisis in the 1960s and worked as a lawyer for political prisoners.
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Jorge Sampaio played an important role in the 1999 East Timorese crisis.
5.
Jorge Sampaio was born in Lisbon on 18 September 1939 into a middle-class family.
6.
The Jorge Sampaio family lived in the United States and the United Kingdom for some years due to the professional activity of his father Arnaldo Jorge Sampaio, a physician who was recognized for promoting the National Vaccination Program.
7.
Jorge Sampaio's mother was Fernanda Bensaude Branco, daughter of Sara Bensliman Bensaude, who was a Sephardi Jew from Morocco and died in 1976.
8.
Jorge Sampaio did not consider himself a Jew and was agnostic.
9.
Jorge Sampaio attended Queen Elizabeth's School in Sao Bento, Lisbon.
10.
Jorge Sampaio enrolled at the YMCA, where he practiced boxing and swimming; he attended piano lessons at the Peabody Institute and participated in its orchestra.
11.
In 1949, Jorge Sampaio attempted to enroll at Colegio Militar, but failed, so he enrolled at Liceu Pedro Nunes.
12.
Jorge Sampaio started his political career as a student of the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon.
13.
Jorge Sampaio had a key role in student resistance and the 1960s academic crisis protesting against the fascist Estado Novo regime, and led the Lisbon students union between 1960 and 1961.
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Jorge Sampaio was in charge of the defense of the accused in famous cases such as the assault on Beja Barracks and those arrested during the Vigilia da Capela do Rato protest.
15.
Jorge Sampaio worked as a director for the Portuguese Bar Association.
16.
On 25 April 1974, during the Carnation Revolution, Jorge Sampaio was awakened by a friend's telephone call; he went to his office to gather information but returned home when the Armed Forces Movement ordered via radio no-one should leave their homes.
17.
In May 1974, Jorge Sampaio co-founded the Movement of Socialist Left but soon after abandoned the political project when, in the first MES congress in December, he strongly opposed its Marxist-Leninist ideology.
18.
On 28 September 1974, Jorge Sampaio participated in the barricades to prevent the arrival of citizens at a demonstration in support of General Antonio de Spinola, then-president of the Republic, in an act known as the "demonstration of the silent majority".
19.
In 1978, IS was absorbed by the Partido Socialista and Jorge Sampaio joined that party, where he was associated with its left-most wing.
20.
Jorge Sampaio was first elected to the Assembly of the Republic in the 1979 legislative election as a deputy for Lisbon, an office he successively held until 1991.
21.
Between 1979 and 1984, Jorge Sampaio was the first Portuguese member of the European Commission for Human Rights of the Council of Europe.
22.
On 18 November 1988, Jorge Sampaio became a candidate for Secretary-General of the PS, and on 16 January 1989, after defeating Jaime Gama, he succeeded Vitor Constancio, who resigned.
23.
Jorge Sampaio led the PS until 1992, when Antonio Guterres defeated him by winning the primaries, after being presented as an alternative following the party's poor results in the 1991 legislative election.
24.
Jorge Sampaio was re-elected for a second term as mayor in 1993.
25.
Jorge Sampaio won the election with 3,035,056 votes and was sworn in on 9 March 1996 in a ceremony at the Assembly of the Republic, succeeding Mario Soares.
26.
Jorge Sampaio was replaced by the President of the Assembly Almeida Santos.
27.
Jorge Sampaio called for an emergency meeting at halftime in which he tried to cancel the second half of the match.
28.
In 1998, Jorge Sampaio became the first president to call referendums: the first was held on 28 June about abortion and the second was held on 8 November about regionalization.
29.
In Oslo in 1999, in a CNN debate on the situation in Timor with Nobel Peace Prize winners Jose Ramos-Horta and bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, Jorge Sampaio's intervention had international repercussions due to his confrontation with the Indonesian ambassador to the United Nations Nugroho Wisnumurtio.
30.
Former President of East Timor Jose Ramos-Horta said Jorge Sampaio "was a great defender of the East Timorese cause and played a crucial role in the political and diplomatic solution that led to independence".
31.
Jorge Sampaio visited East Timor for the first time in February 2000; he was the first Portuguese head of state to do so but his visit was shortened when he learned of the death of his mother.
32.
Jorge Sampaio returned to East Timor in 2002 following the country's Independence with Xanana Gusmao as president.
33.
Shortly before midnight, Jorge Sampaio made a farewell speech, ending 442 years of Portuguese colonialism in Macau.
34.
On 19 October 2000, Jorge Sampaio announced his candidacy in the 2001 presidential election.
35.
Jorge Sampaio won the election, defeating Joaquim Ferreira do Amaral with 2,401,015 votes.
36.
In 2001, while the September 11 attacks on the United States were underway, Jorge Sampaio was having lunch with a guest at Belem Palace and had to immediately cancel.
37.
In early September 2002, discussions about a possible invasion of Iraq began; from that moment, as Jorge Sampaio acknowledged in an interview in 2016, he did not agree with Durao Barroso's position Portugal should participate and was strongly opposed to sending troops to Iraq.
38.
Jorge Sampaio thought the Azores summit would have the objective of avoiding war, according to the prime minister, but as president, Jorge Sampaio was not competent to decide on foreign policy.
39.
Jose Manuel Barroso won the legislative election and Jorge Sampaio nominated him as the new prime minister.
40.
In February 2002, in an interview for the BBC, Jorge Sampaio said Portugal would hold a new referendum to decriminalize abortion.
41.
Jorge Sampaio stated Europe should commit itself more energetically to resolve the crisis in the Middle East, and that the Palestinians and Israelis should return to negotiations.
42.
On 4 April 2002, Jorge Sampaio said he welcomed the peace accords that ended the Angolan Civil War, saying it "opens the way to reconciliation among Angolans and general elections".
43.
In October 2003, Jorge Sampaio invited the presidents of Finland and Germany, and the soon-to-be EU members Hungary, Latvia, and Poland to Arraiolos to discuss the consequences of the 2004 enlargement of the European Union and plans for a Constitution for Europe.
44.
In 2004, Jorge Sampaio refused to hold an early election following the resignation of Social Democratic Party Prime Minister Durao Barroso.
45.
Jorge Sampaio's refusal was met with protests from all left-wing parties and the resignation of socialist leader Ferro Rodrigues.
46.
Jorge Sampaio appointed Pedro Santana Lopes as Prime Minister on 9 July 2004.
47.
On 30 November, Jorge Sampaio said the new cabinet was not achieving the desired stability and he dissolved the Parliament and called another election for February 2005.
48.
Jorge Sampaio's successor was chosen in the presidential election on 22 January 2006.
49.
Anibal Cavaco Silva, who Jorge Sampaio defeated in 1996, succeeded him on 9 March 2006.
50.
Jorge Sampaio was member of the Club de Madrid, an organization of more than 80 former democratic statespersons.
51.
In 2010, Jorge Sampaio participated in the jury for Fondation Chirac's Conflict Prevention Prize.
52.
On 26 August 2021, in an article in the newspaper Publico, Jorge Sampaio announced the Global Platform for Syrian Students was creating academic training for female Afghan students amid the Taliban's seizure of power in Afghanistan.
53.
In 1967, he married Karin Schmidt Dias, a physician and daughter of anthropologist Jorge Sampaio Dias and German-born pianist Margot Dias, with whom he had no children.
54.
Jorge Sampaio played piano from childhood and was a member of Sporting CP, in which his membership number was 3,109.
55.
Jorge Sampaio was shy, cried easily, was discreet, had a poor temper, and was altruistic.
56.
Jorge Sampaio had a British accent and red hair he inherited from a paternal great-grandfather.
57.
Later, in a private ceremony, Jorge Sampaio was buried at Alto de Sao Joao Cemetery, Lisbon.