The first vice-president of the PSD bench, Ricardo Baptista Leite, will suspend his parliamentary mandate in May to lead an international organization that promotes research in the field of artificial intelligence and digitization for healthcare.
The statement sent to Lusa mentions that the MP, who has been in Parliament since 2011, will take over as Executive Director of Geneva-based I-DAIR on May 22 and suspend his mandate in Parliament from May 17. remaining an opposition adviser without portfolios in the municipality of Sintra.
“With great pride and a sense of responsibility, I assumed the functions of a deputy of the Assembly of the Republic for the last four terms. I have always understood that we must be impartial in the exercise of the functions of political responsibility and that we should not depend on the positions we take,” the deputy justified in the communiqué.
The first “deputy” of the Social Democratic bench and head of the Lisbon list in the last legislature emphasized that it was a “personal decision” already announced by the President of the SDP, Luis Montenegro.
The deputy stressed that being an MP “is a mission, not a career”: “It was a very intense 12 years that I am proud of, but I feel that it is time to focus on my professional career,” he added.
Ricardo Baptista Leite said that he had already submitted a health strategy to the National Political Commission and stressed that he would “suspend the parliamentary mandate, giving him enough time to advance” until he replaces the functions of the first vice-president of parliament. group and committees of parliamentarians to which he belongs.
“I also said that I will remain committed to Sintra as an opposition adviser, non-executive, that is, without portfolios, and also remain available for cooperation with the party at the national level. functions, as well as volunteering as president of UNITE’s network of parliamentarians for global health,” he said.
According to the statute of deputies, temporary suspension for family, personal, professional or academic reasons can take place for no more than six months for each legislature, after which the parliamentarian must resume his functions or permanently retire.
Born on May 31, 1980 (aged 42), Ricardo Baptista Leite first assumed the mandate of a member of the XII Legislative Assembly (in 2011) from the district of Lisbon, to this position he was successively re-elected until the current Legislative Assembly, in which he is a member of parliamentary committees on Health and Foreign Affairs and the Portuguese Community, the latter acting as Deputy.
A doctor by profession, he is currently Scientific Coordinator of Public Health at the Institute of Health Sciences of the Catholic University of Portugal and a visiting lecturer at the NOVA School of Medicine at the University of Nova de Lisboa, as well as Deputy and Advisor without portfolios in the Municipality of Sintra.
Ricardo Baptista Leite was vice-president of the PSD bench with three previous parliamentary leaders – Rui Río, Adão Silva and Paulo Mota Pinto, and with the current Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, he was appointed as the first “vice-president”.
During the covid-19 pandemic, he was almost always the face of PSD at the end of meetings with epidemiologists at Infarmed, and on March 13, 2020, he made a dramatic call to Parliament for the Portuguese to “cancel everything and stay at home”, stressing that it “was not for political debate,” but for unity.
In January 2021, the Prime Minister even accused Baptista Leite, “on the health front”, along with social democrats Paulo Rangel and Miguel Puarez Maduro of being involved in a campaign to tarnish the country’s external image during the Portuguese presidency of the Council of the European Union, which led to the fact that the PSD announced the initiation of a criminal case against António Costa.
Chairman of the Board of Directors of the organization Christophe Benn announced the selection of Ricardo Baptista Leite as the new CEO of I-DAIR “after a long and thorough international selection”.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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