António José Seguro

António José Seguro
Seguro in 2025
Secretary-General of the Socialist Party
In office 23 July 2011 – 28 September 2014
President	António de Almeida Santos Maria de Belém Roseira
Preceded by	José Sócrates
Succeeded by	António Costa
President of the Parliamentary Group of the Socialist Party
In office 31 March 2004 – 9 March 2005
Preceded by	António Costa
Succeeded by	Alberto Martins
Minister in the Cabinet of the Prime Minister
In office 3 July 2001 – 8 April 2002
Prime Minister	António Guterres
Preceded by	Armando Vara
Succeeded by	José Luís Arnaut
Secretary of State Assistant to the Prime Minister
In office 25 November 1997 – 20 July 1999
Prime Minister	António Guterres
Preceded by	Luís Marques Guedes
Succeeded by	Vitalino Canas
Secretary of State for Youth Affairs
In office 28 October 1995 – 25 November 1997
Prime Minister	António Guterres
Preceded by	Maria do Céu Ramos
Succeeded by	Miguel Fontes
Secretary-General of the Socialist Youth
In office 29 April 1990 – 6 March 1994
Preceded by	José Apolinário
Succeeded by	Sérgio Sousa Pinto
Member of the Assembly of the Republic[1][2]
In office 10 March 2005 – 8 October 2014
Constituency	Braga
In office 5 April 2002 – 9 March 2005
Constituency	Lisbon
In office 4 November 1991 – 26 October 1995
Constituency	Porto
Member of the European Parliament
In office 20 July 1999 – 2 July 2001
Constituency	Portugal
Personal details
Born	(1962-03-11) 11 March 1962 (age 62) Penamacor, Portugal
Political party	Socialist Party
Spouse	Margarida Maldonado Freitas ​ ​ (m. 2001)​
Children	2
Alma mater	Lisbon University Institute Autonomous University of Lisbon

António José Martins Seguro (born 11 March 1962) is a Portuguese politician for the Socialist Party (PS). Seguro was Secretary General of the PS from 2011 until September 2014, and he was the leader of the largest opposition party in the Portuguese Parliament.

Seguro was born on 11 March 1962 in Penamacor. He entered politics at a very young age and became a member of the Portuguese Socialist Party (PS) as a youth. He attended the 1st cycle program in business organization and management at the ISCTE – Lisbon University Institute, but he did not graduate. Seguro has a degree in international relations awarded later by the Autonomous University of Lisbon.

Seguro became involved in political activities from a very young age, always linked to the Socialist Party (PS). He was successively secretary general of Socialist Youth, president of the National Youth Council and chairman of the Youth Forum of the European Communities. He was first elected to the Portuguese Parliament in 1991.^[3]

In 1995, the Socialist Party won the parliamentary elections, leaving the leader António Guterres to form a government. Seguro initially was Secretary of State for Youth and, starting in 1997, assistant secretary of State's prime minister. He also played the role of coordinator of the Standing Committee of the Portuguese Socialist Party and president of the Municipal Assembly of Penamacor.

In 1999, Seguro was elected as a Member of the European Parliament, serving between July 1999 and July 2001. In these two years serving in the European Parliament, he was an effective member of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs (in these functions he was co-author of the Report on the Treaty of Nice and the Future of the European Union) and a substitute for the Commission for Employment and Social Affairs. He was also president of the Delegation for Relations with Central America and Mexico, vice president of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament and president of the Portuguese Socialist delegation.^[4]

Seguro resigned as an MEP in 2001 to serve as Minister in the Cabinet of the Prime Minister, again under António Guterres.^[3] In 2002, he returned to the Assembly of the Republic, serving as the Socialist Parliamentary leader from 2004 to 2005. He was also appointed member of the National Secretariat of the Socialist Party. He accumulated these positions with membership in the Municipal Assembly of Gouveia after being elected in the 2001 local elections.^[5]

After Prime Minister José Sócrates resigned as PS General Secretary on the election night of 5 June 2011, having lost the general election by a margin higher than expected, Seguro was elected leader of the party on 23 July 2011, winning 68% of the vote against his challenger, Francisco Assis, who got 32%.^[6]

As Secretary-general, Seguro decided to abstain in the 2012 State Budget proposed by the Passos Coelho government, citing his decision as a "violent, but constructive abstention",^[7] a decision that ended up attracting criticism from inside the PS.

The Socialist Party managed to achieve one of it's best results ever in the 2013 local elections and won the 2014 European Parliament election with Francisco Assis as the main candidate, although by a narrow margin, which motivated the Mayor of Lisbon António Costa to run for the party leadership.^[3] The party decided to organize primaries open to the party's supporters in 2014, in which Costa defeated Seguro by a landslide. Seguro resigned from the leadership the same day, leaving Costa as Secretary-general.^[8]

Year	Party		Constituency	Position	#	Votes	%	+/-	Status	Notes
1985		PS	Lisbon	? (out of 56)	4th	255,030	19.80 / 100.00	15.95	Not Elected	Later joined parliament as an MP.[9]
1991			Porto	9 (out of 37)	2nd	313,893	32.92 / 100.00	6.19	Elected
1995			Guarda	1 (out of 4)	1st	49,498	43.65 / 100.00	16.88	Elected
2002			Lisbon	7 (out of 48)	1st	440,790	38.66 / 100	4.04	Elected	Elected president of the Socialist parliamentary group in 2004.[10]
2005			Braga	1 (out of 18)	1st	218,665	45.44 / 100.00	8.01	Elected
2009				1 (out of 19)	1st	207,695	41.73 / 100.00	3.71	Elected
2011				1 (out of 19)	2nd	159,477	32.85 / 100.00	8.88	Elected	Elected Secretary-general of the Socialist Party in 2011.[6]