Salgado Zenha

Francisco Salgado Zenha GCL (2 May 1923, Braga – 1 November 1993, Lisbon) was a Portuguese left-wing politician and lawyer.

Career As a student at the University of Coimbra, he was elected president of the Academic Association of Coimbra. He would be dismissed because he refused to support the Estado Novo regime. In 1945, he became one of the founders of the youth wing of the Movement of Democratic Unity (Portuguese: Movimento de Unidade Democrática – Juvenil or "MUD-J"), a movement that spanned all anti-Fascist opposition groups. His "subversive" actions got him imprisoned several times.

Later, he supported the presidential candidacy of Norton de Matos, following which he met Mário Soares. In the next election he supported Humberto Delgado. After that he joined several Socialist movements, and in 1973 he co-founded the Socialist Party. As a staunch anti-fascist, he gained popularity for defending people accused of supporting anti-fascism and anti-colonialism.

After the Carnation Revolution, he was the Minister of Justice in the first four democratic governments and Minister of Finance in the fifth.

He was a member of the commission which legalized divorce in Portugal in consultation with the Holy See. Between 1974 and 1982, he was a registered member of the Portuguese Socialist Party. From 1977 to 1983 he was a member of the European Parliament, representing Porto.

In 1980, he had a falling out with his old friend Mário Soares, stemming from the party supporting Ramalho Eanes in the presidential election.

In 1986, he stood as a presidential candidate with support from the Portuguese Communist Party and the Democratic Renovator Party. However, he failed to reach the second round and thereafter virtually disappeared from the political scene.

He died of cancer on 1 November 1993.

Electoral history

Presidential election, 1986

Votes

Votes