Hugo Soares goes to the polls for the leadership of the PSD bench

Hugo Soares will go to the polls this Wednesday as the sole candidate for parliamentary leader of the PSD, a position he has held since April last year and which he had previously held for just seven months eight years ago.

The election of the leadership of the PSD Parliamentary Group will take place this Wednesday between 3:00 pm and 5:00 pm in parliament and, in relation to the previous legislature, Hugo Soares proposes four new vice-presidents for the group , including former Secretaries of State Cristina Vaz Tomé and Paulo Lopes Marcelo.

The other two new proposed vice-presidents are deputy Bruno Ventura, elected by Lisbon, and deputy Dulcineia Moura, elected by Guarda, who was already secretary of the parliamentary group.

In the list that will be voted on, the parliamentary leader and secretary-general of the PSD proposes the continuity of eight of the 12 vice-presidents: the former president of the Order of Physicians Miguel Guimarães, the former deputy secretary-general Hugo Carneiro, the former Secretary of State Regina Bastos, the municipal coordinator Pedro Alves, the former mayor of Rio Maior Isaura Morais, the former leader of the JSD Alexandre Poço, the deputy for Lisbon António Rodrigues and the deputy Andreia Neto, elected for Porto.

The new secretaries of the bench proposed are Fernando Queiroga, former president of the Boticas Chamber, and João Antunes dos Santos, elected by Leiria.

In the XXIV Constitutional Government, the first executive led by Luís Montenegro, Cristina Vaz Tomé was Secretary of State for Health Management and Paulo Lopes Marcelo was Secretary of State for the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.

The previous leadership of the parliamentary group includes Cristóvão Norte, who will be a candidate for the Faro Municipal Council, Hugo Oliveira, a candidate for the Caldas da Rainha Council, and two other members who left the group to join the Government: João Valle e Azevedo, Secretary of State for the Presidency, and Silvério Regalado, Secretary of State for Local Administration.

The PSD parliamentary leader, Hugo Soares, announced that he would run for office again at the first meeting of the new group, on June 2. “This is where I feel good and where I think I can continue to help the country, first and foremost, and the Government second, ” explained the PSD secretary-general.

In the last legislature, Hugo Soares was elected leader of the social-democratic parliamentary group with 98.7% of the votes, on April 9th ​​last year.

Hugo Soares had already been president of the social-democratic bench, elected on July 19, 2017, with 85.4% of the votes, having then succeeded Luís Montenegro in the position.

However, just seven months later, in February 2018, he ended up calling early elections for the parliamentary group, after the new PSD president Rui Rio expressed his desire to work with another bench leadership, and was succeeded by Fernando Negrão, elected with less than 40% of the votes.

Hugo Soares was born in Braga on March 2, 1983 (age 42), and has been Montenegro's right-hand man over the last few years. President of the Social Democratic Youth between 2012 and 2014, he was a member of the Assembly of the Republic between June 2011 and October 2019 and, again, since 2024.

A lawyer by profession and a business administrator, he returned to the forefront of political life with the victory of the current president of the PSD in the 2022 internal elections and assumed the position of secretary-general. In the legislative elections of May 18th of this year, he was re-elected deputy as head of the list for Braga.