Convinced that “being a deputy is not a profession, much less a job,” the man whom the PSD wants to see as President of the Assembly of the Republic resigned his parliamentary mandate in January 2019 to show the then party leader that he no “places” needed.
José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, the former minister of defense and justice who was also the leader of the orange parliamentary group, justified his departure by saying that “parliament is a space for the confrontation of projects within the framework of the realization of freedom, which should not make us forget that being a deputy is more than a profession,” he said then. Aguiar-Branco said then that the departure of parliament was not connected with the political moment of the PSD (Luis Montenegro invited party leader Rui Rio to call early elections), but with his life outside of politics.
“I renounce my mandate. I am also not a candidate in the next legislative elections. This also shows that my entire assessment of the situation has nothing to do with such places or “small places” that, unfortunately, have been brought to the attention of the public. discussion,” he said in an interview with RTP.
José Pedro Correia de Aguiar-Branco, who yesterday was not elected to the post of President of the Assembly of the Republic,” was born in 1957 in Porto and has been a deputy since the 10th Legislative Assembly. In government, he served as Defense Minister in the Democratic Social Government of Passos Coelho between 2011 and 2015. He was also Minister of Justice in the PSD/CDU-PP government led by Pedro Santana López.