Carneiro re-elects almost the entire leadership of the bench

There are six new members of the Socialist Party leadership and only one of the names from the previous group will not be reappointed by the future leadership. The group will be led by Eurico Brilhante Dias, with José Luís Carneiro opting to keep almost all of the previous vice-presidents of the group, with only Tiago Barbosa Ribeiro leaving.

The election of the parliamentary leadership will take place after the new party leader is elected, although a date has not yet been set. However, the composition of the leadership has already been agreed and will increase compared to the existing one — the intention was to guarantee territorial representation — with the future leader preferring not to remove names that were at the head of the party during the Pedro Nuno Santos era. This is a similar line to the one proposed for the new national leadership of the party, which it wants to form after the leader is elected, as reported by Observador.

Carneiro will “renew” the PS leadership, but wants to keep some names from the past

Eurico Brilhante Dias returns to lead the group, as well as Luís Testa (who returned to Parliament in this legislature, elected by Portalegre), Pedro Sousa (elected by Braga), Rui Santos (Vila Real), Júlia Rodrigues (Bragança) and Porfírio Silva (who was elected by Porto, having been re-elected following the organisation of the PS candidate lists after the unexpected departure of Sérgio Sousa Pinto).

The following deputies will remain as vice-presidents of the parliamentary group: António Mendonça Mendes, Mariana Vieira da Silva, Luís Graça, João Torres, Marina Gonçalves, Pedro Delgado Alves (who has temporarily taken on the role of interim) and Ana Paula Bernardino. The deputies elected by the autonomous regions, Francisco César and Sofia Canha, the president of the Socialist Women, Elza Pais, and the president of the JS, Sofia Pereira, are also part of the team by extension.

The party's sectoral coordinators have undergone some changes, with Isabel Moreira becoming the coordinator of the parliamentary group for the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees and Pedro Delgado Alves now coordinating Transparency, where Moreira was.

Catarina Louro will be in charge of Foreign Affairs, Luís Dias in Defence, Eduardo Pinheiro in European Affairs (Ana Sofia Antunes was there, who will now run for the Oeiras City Council). Miguel Costa Matos will be the coordinator for the parliamentary Budget and Finance Committee and Nuno Fazenda in charge of the Economy Committee. Pedro do Carmo will coordinate the Agriculture area, Aida Carvalho in charge of Education, Susana Correia in charge of Health (where João Paulo Correia, another PS local government candidate, was). Miguel Cabrita will repeat as coordinator of the Labour area. Pedro Vaz will be in charge of the Environment, Paulo Silva in charge of Youth and Sports, Jorge Botelho in charge of Local Government and Frederico Francisco in charge of Infrastructure.

For the Board of Directors of the parliamentary group, the PS will have Hugo Costa and also Irene Costa and Patrícia Faro. And on the Supervisory Board, Armando Mourisco, Sofia Andrade and Sandra Lopes.

The PS faces the worst scenario ever in Parliament, having become the third political force for the first time. In the legislative elections, Chega managed to elect two more deputies than the socialists. The scenario could not be more different from the one Eurico Brilhante Dias faced the last time he was parliamentary leader, at the invitation of António Costa, who had just won an absolute majority (2022).