Paulo Rangel

Paulo Artur dos Santos Castro de Campos Rangel (born 18 February 1968) is a Portuguese jurist and politician of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) who has been Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2024, in the XXIV Constitutional Government, led by Luís Montenegro.^[1]

For the Brazilian association football player, see Paulo Rangel (footballer).

Paulo Rangel
Rangel in 2024
Minister of State and Foreign Affairs
Incumbent
Assumed office 2 April 2024
Prime Minister	Luís Montenegro
Preceded by	João Gomes Cravinho
Member of the European Parliament for Portugal
In office 14 July 2009 – 1 April 2024
Succeeded by	Ana Miguel dos Santos
Vice President of the Social Democratic Party
In office 3 July 2022 – 19 October 2024
President	Luís Montenegro
Preceded by	Ana Paula Martins
Succeeded by	Leonor Beleza
Member of the Assembly of the Republic
In office 10 March 2005 – 13 July 2009
Constituency	Porto
Secretary of State Adjunct to the Minister of Justice
In office 17 July 2004 – 12 March 2005
Prime Minister	Pedro Santana Lopes
Minister	José Pedro Aguiar-Branco
Preceded by	João Mota de Campos
Succeeded by	José Manuel Conde Rodrigues
President of the Parliamentary Group of the Social Democratic Party
In office 26 June 2008 – 13 July 2009
President	Manuela Ferreira Leite
Preceded by	Pedro Santana Lopes
Succeeded by	António Montalvão Machado
Personal details
Born	Paulo Artur dos Santos Castro de Campos Rangel (1968-02-18) 18 February 1968 (age 57) Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal
Political party	Social Democratic Party (2005–present)
Other political affiliations	CDS – People's Party (1996–1999)
Alma mater	Portuguese Catholic University
Occupation	Jurist • Politician

Previously, Rangel served as a Member of the European Parliament between 2009 and 2024. He also serves as treasurer of the European People's Party under the leadership of its president Manfred Weber.^[2]

Political career

Member of the European Parliament, 2009–2024

Rangel was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from the 2009 European elections. Ahead of the 2014 European elections, the PSD named Rangel at the top of their list.^[3] In the 2019 European elections, he served as his party's lead candidate again.^[4]

In parliament, Rangel served on the Committee on Constitutional Affairs from 2009. In that capacity, he drafted the parliament's 2010 report on the framework agreement between the European Commission and the Parliament, which demanded that MEPs should be allowed to participate in international negotiations that lead to accords that need parliamentary backing.^[5] In 2014, he became the committee's vice-chairman. He became a member of the Working Group on the Conference on the Future of Europe.

In 2019, Rangel also joined Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. In this capacity, he served as the parliament's rapporteur on Croatia's accession to the Schengen zone.^[6]

In addition to his committee assignments, Rangel served on the parliament's delegations for to the ACP–EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (2017–2019) and for relations with the United States (2019–2014), Brazil (2014–2017), Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo (2021–2024), and Montenegro (2021–2024).

Upon entering the parliament, Rangel was chosen as one of the vice-presidents of the European People's Party Group. Within the European People's Party, he chaired the Working Group on EPP Membership from 2016.^[7] In this capacity, he notably decided to suspend the Fidesz party in 2020.^[8] In 2021, he was also appointed to the EPP group's task force for proposing changes to its rules of procedure to allow for "the possibility of the collective termination of membership of a group of Members rather than just individual membership", alongside Esteban González Pons, Jan Olbrycht, Esther de Lange and Othmar Karas.^[9]

Role in national politics

During his time in parliament, Rangel launched a bid for the leadership of the PSD in 2010 but ultimately came second and lost against Pedro Passos Coelho.^[10] In 2021, he again announced his candidacy for the leadership of the PSD and demanded a more assertive opposition to Prime Minister António Costa's Socialist government; in the vote held in November 2021, he was defeated by incumbent Rui Rio.^[11]

Other activities

• RAR Group, Chairman of the Board of the Shareholders' General Meeting
• Associação Comercial do Porto (ACP), Member of the Board

Personal life

In 2021, Paulo Rangel publicly came out as gay.^[12][13]

Electoral history

European Parliament election, 2009

Main article: 2009 European Parliament election in Portugal

Ballot: 7 June 2009

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Seats	+/−
	PSD	Paulo Rangel	1,131,744	31.7	8	+1
	PS	Vital Moreira	946,818	26.5	7	–5
	BE	Miguel Portas	382,667	10.7	3	+2
	CDU	Ilda Figueiredo	379,787	10.6	2	±0
	CDS–PP	Nuno Melo	298,423	8.4	2	±0
	MEP	Laurinda Alves	55,072	1.5	0	new
	PCTP/MRPP	Orlando Alves	42,940	1.2	0	±0
	Other parties		95,744	2.7	0	±0
Blank/Invalid ballots			235,748	6.6	–	–
Turnout			3,568,943	36.78	22	–2
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições[14]

PSD leadership election, 2010

Main article: 2010 Portuguese Social Democratic Party leadership election

Ballot: 26 March 2010

Candidate		Votes	%
	Pedro Passos Coelho	31,671	61.2
	Paulo Rangel	17,821	34.4
	José Pedro Aguiar Branco	1,769	3.4
	Castanheira Barros	138	0.3
Blank/Invalid ballots		349	0.7
Turnout		51,748	66.26
Source: Resultados[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]

European Parliament election, 2019

Main article: 2019 European Parliament election in Portugal

Ballot: 26 May 2019

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Seats	+/−
	PS	Pedro Marques	1,104,694	33.4	9	+1
	PSD	Paulo Rangel	725,399	21.9	6	±0
	BE	Marisa Matias	325,093	9.8	2	+1
	CDU	João Ferreira	228,045	6.9	2	–1
	CDS–PP	Nuno Melo	204,792	6.2	1	±0
	PAN	Francisco Guerreiro	168,015	5.1	1	+1
	Alliance	Paulo Sande	61,652	1.9	0	new
	Livre	Rui Tavares	60,446	1.8	0	±0
	Basta!	André Ventura	49,388	1.5	0	new
	NC	Paulo de Morais	34,634	1.1	0	new
	Other parties		116,743	2.7	0	±0
Blank/Invalid ballots			235,748	3.5	–	–
Turnout			3,307,644	30.75	21	±0
Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições[17]

PSD leadership election, 2021

Main article: 2021 Portuguese Social Democratic Party leadership election

Ballot: 27 November 2021

Candidate		Votes	%
	Rui Rio	18,852	52.4
	Paulo Rangel	17,106	47.6
Blank/Invalid ballots		518	–
Turnout		36,476	78.17
Source: Resultados[18]