Luís Filipe Menezes

Luís Filipe Menezes
Luís Filipe Menezes
President of the Social Democratic Party
	In office; 12 October 2007 – 20 June 2008
Secretary-General	José Ribau Esteves
Preceded by	Luís Marques Mendes
Succeeded by	Manuela Ferreira Leite
Mayor of Vila Nova de Gaia
	In office; 14 January 1997 – 21 October 2013
Preceded by	José Heitor Carvalheiras
Succeeded by	Eduardo de Almeida Rodrigues
Secretary of State Assistant for Parliamentary Affairs
	In office; 5 November 1991 – 28 October 1995
Prime Minister	Aníbal Cavaco Silva
Preceded by	Carlos Encarnação
Succeeded by	António Costa
Personal details
Born	Luís Filipe de Menezes Lopes; 2 November 1953 (age 70); Ovar, Portugal
Political party	Social Democratic Party
Spouses	; Maria Cândida Valanzuela de Sampayo Tavares (m. 1980; div. 2010) ; Ana Luísa Caetano; (m. 2015)
Children	4
Alma mater	University of Porto

Luís Filipe de Menezes Lopes (born 2 November 1953) is a Portuguese politician.

Background

He is a son of José António Lopes (Porto, Alvar, 10 September 1925 –), an Industrialist (son and paternal grandson of cattle dealers and maternal grandson and great-grandson of farmers and maternal grandson of an exposed daughter of unknown parents), and wife (m. Coimbra, Sé Nova, 11 December 1949) Maria Helena de Menezes Borges (Viseu, Abraveses, Aguieira, 15 April 1928 – 10 March 2015), a Licentiate in Philosophy from the Faculty of Letters of the University of Porto and a High School Teacher, whose paternal grandfather was Spanish and whose mother was from the local Nobility.

Career

He is a Licentiate in Medicine specialized in pediatrics from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto.

He started his career as a medical doctor.

Affiliated with the Social Democratic Party (PSD), he was a Secretary of State for Parliamentary Affairs and from 1997 to 2013 he was Mayor of the Municipal Chamber of Vila Nova de Gaia (in Greater Porto subregion), one of the most populated Portuguese municipalities.

He was leader of the Social Democratic Party between 12 October 2007 and 20 June 2008.^[1] He was elected after Luís Marques Mendes and was succeeded by Manuela Ferreira Leite.

Meneses is considered a populist, his policies as mayor were equally populist and his victory over Marques Mendes is considered a victory of populism in the SDP,^[2] as there was a clear difference between the positions of both, having Meneses a more politically correct and pro-people position in most matters, although with a sightly neoliberal stance on the health care system, and a liberal conservative position towards gay rights.^[3]

Luis Filipe Menezes is considered as a modern politician.^[4] He had the best score in the Municipality elections of October 2009.

Family

He married Civilly at the 2nd Conservatory of the Civil Register of Porto on 20 March 1980 and Religiously in Porto, Bonfim, on 7 May 1980 to Maria Cândida Valanzuela de Sampayo Tavares (Porto, Ramalde, 7 November 1956), daughter of Amândio Gómez de Sampayo Tavares (Porto, Cedofeita, 26 December 1928 –), a Cathedratic Professor of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto, etc., and the Proprietor of the House of O Carballal in San Cristovo de Mourentán, Arbo, Pontevedra, Galicia, son of a Galician mother, and wife (m. 11 September 1952) María del Carmen Valanzuela y Simón (30 July 1923 –), a Galician paternal granddaughter of an unknown paternal grandfather, and had issue, three sons: