Francisco Assis

For the Angolan footballer, see Francisco Assis (footballer).

Francisco José Pereira de Assis Miranda (born 8 January 1965) is a Portuguese politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Socialist Party. He was part of the Party of European Socialists from 2004 to 2009, and again from 2014 until 2019. He is also a former mayor of Amarante, having been in office from 1989 to 1995, and member of the Assembly of Republic on two occasions, the first from 1995 to 2004 and the second from 2009 to 2014.^[1]

Francisco Assis
Official portrait, 2024
Member of the European Parliament for Portugal
Incumbent
Assumed office 16 July 2024
In office 1 July 2014 – 1 July 2019
In office 20 July 2004 – 13 July 2009
Member of the Assembly of the Republic
In office 26 March 2024 – 26 June 2024
Constituency	Porto
In office 15 October 2009 – 30 June 2014
Constituency	Guarda (2009–2011) Porto (2011–2014)
In office 27 October 1995 – 19 July 2004
Constituency	Porto
Mayor of Amarante
In office 17 December 1989 – 26 October 1995
Preceded by	Joaquim Teixeira
Succeeded by	Armindo Abreu
Personal details
Born	Francisco José Pereira de Assis Miranda (1965-01-08) 8 January 1965 (age 60) Amarante, Portugal
Political party	Socialist Party (since 1985)
Other political affiliations	Party of European Socialists
Spouse	Vanda Teixeira Pinto
Alma mater	University of Porto
Occupation	Teacher • Politician

Assis was elected a Member of the European Parliament in the 2024 European election, and is expected to be sworn-in in the upcoming Tenth European Parliament.^[2]

Political career

Role in national politics

Assis challenged incumbent António José Seguro for the party leadership in 2011.^[3] When the right-wing coalition government of Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho lost its absolute majority in parliament as a result of the 2015 Portuguese legislative election, Assis condemned what he described as "left-wing fantasies" within his own Socialist Party, describing any attempt at an agreement with the Portuguese Communist Party and the Left Bloc as "absurd".^[4] On 24 November 2015, Socialist leader António Costa was appointed as Prime Minister after forming a parliamentary alliance with three left-wing parties.^[5] Assis publicly voiced his opposition to the new coalition agreement,^[6][7] which he reaffirmed in the context of the 2017 Portuguese local elections and in the aftermath of the October 2017 Iberian wildfires.^[8][9]

Member of the European Parliament (2014–2019)

Ahead of the 2014 European Parliament election in Portugal, the Socialist Party named Assis at the top of their list.^[10] Following elections, he became a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Subcommittee on Human Rights. He was also the chairman of the parliament's delegation for relations with Mercosur. Assis has been a political commentator for television programmes on TV stations SIC Notícias and TVI 24 and a columnist for the newspaper Público.

Electoral history

Amarante City Council election, 1989

Ballot: 17 December 1989

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Seats	+/−
	PS	Francisco Assis	12,767	45.6	4	+2
	PSD	–	9,290	33.2	2	–2
	CDS	–	3,987	14.3	1	±0
	CDU	–	1,027	3.7	0	±0
Blank/Invalid ballots			902	3.2	–	–
Turnout			27,973	67.13	7	±0
Source: Autárquicas 1989[11]

Amarante City Council election, 1993

Ballot: 12 December 1993

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Seats	+/−
	PS	Francisco Assis	18,732	58.8	5	+1
	PSD	João Mota	10,638	33.4	2	±0
	CDS–PP	–	1,296	4.1	0	–1
	CDU	–	483	1.5	0	±0
Blank/Invalid ballots			707	2.2	–	–
Turnout			31,856	71.52	7	±0
Source: Autárquicas 1989[12]

Porto City Council election, 2005

Ballot: 9 October 2005

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Seats	+/−
	PSD/CDS–PP	Rui Rio	63,443	46.2	7	+1
	PS	Francisco Assis	49,653	36.1	5	–1
	CDU	Rui Sá	12,311	9.0	1	±0
	BE	João Teixeira Lopes	5,797	4.2	0	±0
	Other parties		1,756	1.3	0	±0
Blank/Invalid ballots			4,420	3.2	–	–
Turnout			137,380	58.43	13	±0
Source: Autárquicas 2005[13][14]

PS leadership election, 2011

Main article: 2011 Portuguese Socialist Party leadership election

Ballot: 22 and 23 July 2011

Candidate		Votes	%
	António José Seguro	23,903	68.0
	Francisco Assis	11,257	32.0
Blank/Invalid ballots		367	–
Turnout		35,527
Source: Diretas 2011[15]

European Parliament election, 2014

Main article: 2014 European Parliament election in Portugal

Ballot: 25 May 2014

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Seats	+/−
	PS	Francisco Assis	1,034,249	31.5	8	+1
	PSD/CDS–PP	Paulo Rangel	910,647	27.7	7	–3
	CDU	João Ferreira	416,925	12.7	3	+1
	MPT	Marinho e Pinto	234,788	7.2	2	+2
	BE	Marisa Matias	149,764	4.6	1	–2
	Livre	Rui Tavares	71,495	2.2	0	new
	PAN	Orlando Figueiredo	56,431	1.7	0	new
	PCTP/MRPP	Leopoldo Mesquita	54,708	1.7	0	±0
	Other parties		111,765	3.4	0	±0
Blank/Invalid ballots			243,681	7.4	–	–
Turnout			3,284,452	33.67	21	–1
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições[16]