Luís Filipe Menezes


Luís Filipe de Menezes Lopes is a Portuguese politician.

Background

He is a son of José António Lopes, an Industrialist, and wife Maria Helena de Menezes Borges, 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, 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 municipality, one of the most populated Portuguese municipalities.
He was leader of the Social Democratic Party between September 2007 and 31 May 2008. 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, 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.
Luis Filipe Menezes is considered as a modern politician. He had the best score in last Municipality elections of October 2009.

Family

He married in Porto 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, born in Porto, Ramalde, on 7 November 1956, daughter of Amândio Gómez de Sampayo Tavares, 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 María del Carmen Valanzuela y Simón, a Galician paternal granddaughter of an unknown paternal grandfather, and had issue, three sons:

PSD leadership election, 2007

! align="center" colspan="4"|Ballot: 28 September 2007
! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 60px"|Candidate
! align="center" style="width: 50px"|Votes
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