He helped Marcelo reach the presidency and he had been waiting for “a ministerial position” for a long time: Pedro Duarte is back, now as Minister of Parliamentary Affairs

Pedro Duarte was presented, this Thursday, as Minister of Parliamentary Affairs of the Government of the Democratic Alliance and will take office on April 2nd.

He directed the campaign that resulted in the defeat of Luís Filipe Menezes in the 2013 local elections and the one that led Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa to victory in the 2016 presidential elections. Between 1998 and 2002, he was leader of the Social Democratic Youth, and in 2004 he became secretary of State in the Government of Pedro Santana Lopes. Porto native Pedro Duarte, born on July 12, 1973, is back in politics, now as Minister of Parliamentary Affairs.

His vast CV includes a degree in Law from the Portuguese Catholic University, a master’s degree in International Economics and European Studies, a PhD in Development Studies from ISEG/University of Lisbon and an MBA.

He has two daughters, is a lawyer by profession, but has been involved in politics since he was young. He has even written a book about one of the most troubled moments in Portuguese history, published in 2003: “Troika Nunca Mais – Lessons in Crisis”.

Since July 2022, he has served as coordinator of the National Strategic Council, which prepared the PSD’s electoral program, later taken to votes in the Democratic Alliance coalition.

He became a member of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and Secretary of State for Youth in the XVI Constitutional Government, but has been away from the hemicycle since 2011, currently integrating the Corporate, External & Legal Affairs department and the European Government Affairs Team at Microsoft.

He also leads the General Assembly of ASSOFT (Portuguese Software Association), is a member of the board of directors of the American Chamber of Commerce in Portugal and has chaired the CIP Digital Economy Strategic Council since 2018.

“If we compared Pedro Duarte with Hugo Soares we were talking about the Beira road and the roadside”, describes Anselmo Crespo, director of New Content at TVI and CNN Portugal. The journalist, and also commentator, states that Soares has a better profile to lead the parliamentary bench, due to his more “guerrilla” stance, while the former has a more suitable profile for parliamentary matters, being “a person of consensus”, “very thoughtful” and “easy to talk to”. “I’m not sure it’s ideal, but I understand the choice of Montenegro and the profile it outlines”, he concludes.

Commentator Anabela Neves says that Pedro Duarte “has been waiting for a long time – and probably with merit – for a ministerial position” and calls on him not to follow the path of “considering that everything is a negative coalition”, explaining that the The PSD and CDS governments “will really live in a very tense political environment”. “Knowing how to deal with him will be decisive and knowing what should be said at each moment, even more so.”