Secretary-General of the Socialist Party (Portugal)

The Secretary-General of the Socialist Party is the highest position within the portuguese Socialist Party.^[1] Currently, the office is held by José Luís Carneiro, after his victory in the July 2025 leadership election.^[2]

Secretary-general of the Socialist Party
Incumbent José Luís Carneiro since 28 June 2025
Status	Party leader
Inaugural holder	Mário Soares
Formation	19 April 1973
Deputy	Deputy Secretary-general of the Socialist Party

The post of Secretary-general was created in 1973, after the party's foundation in Bad Münstereifel. Its first holder was Mário Soares, who held several important offices such as Prime Minister from 1976 to 1978 and again from 1983 to 1985, and President of the Republic, from 1986 to 1996.

Until 1998, party secretary-generals were elected by delegate votes in a party congress, but in that same year, party rules were changed and registered party members, with membership fees updated, gained the right to elect the president secretary-general of delegates in a congress, with the possibility of a second round if no candidate obtains more than 50% of the votes in the first round of voting.^[3]

To this day, four Secretaries-general of the Socialist Party have become Prime Minister of Portugal: Mário Soares in 1976 and 1983, António Guterres in 1995, José Sócrates in 2005 and António Costa in 2015. In addition, Jorge Sampaio, also former Secretary-general, held the office President of the Republic from 1996 to 2006.

List of Secretaries-general of the Socialist Party

Colour key (for political parties)
Socialist Party (PS)   Social Democratic Party (PSD)   CDS – People's Party (CDS)   National Union (UN)   Independent   Interim holder

#	Portrait	Name	Constituency	Took office	Left office	Election	Prime Minister		Ref.
1		Mário Soares (1924–2017)	Lisbon	19 April 1973	13 June 1985	–		Marcelo Caetano (1968–1974)	[4]
								Adelino da Palma Carlos (1974)
								Vasco Gonçalves (1974–1975)
								José Pinheiro de Azevedo (1975–1976)
								himself (1976–1978)
								Alfredo Nobre da Costa (1978)
								Carlos Mota Pinto (1978–1979)
								Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo (1979–1980)
								Francisco Sá Carneiro (1980)
								Diogo Freitas do Amaral (1980–1981)
								Francisco Pinto Balsemão (1981–1983)
								himself (1983–1985)
–		António de Almeida Santos (interim) (1926–2016)	Guarda (1976–1980) Porto (1980–1995) Lisbon (1995–2002) Coimbra (2002–2005)	19 June 1985	13 November 1985	1985		Mário Soares (1985)	[5]
								Aníbal Cavaco Silva (1985–1995)
–		António Macedo (interim) (1906–1989)	Porto	13 November 1985	29 June 1986	–			[6]
2		Vítor Constâncio (b. 1943)	Lisbon	29 June 1986	16 January 1989	1986			[7]
3		Jorge Sampaio (1939–2021)	Lisbon (1976–1987) Santarém (1987–1991) Lisbon (1991–1992)	16 January 1989	23 February 1992	1989			[8]
4		António Guterres (b. 1949)	Castelo Branco	23 February 1992	19 January 2002	1992			[9]
								himself (1995–2002)
5		Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues (b. 1949)	Lisbon (1985–1987) Aveiro (1987–1991) Lisbon (1991–1999) Leiria (1999–2002) Lisbon (2002–2022)	19 January 2002	27 September 2004	2002		António Guterres (2002)	[10]
								José Durão Barroso (2002–2004)
								Pedro Santana Lopes (2004–2005)
6		José Sócrates (b. 1957)	Castelo Branco	27 September 2004	23 July 2011	2004			[11]
								himself (2005–2011)
								Pedro Passos Coelho (2011–2015)
7		António José Seguro (b. 1962)	Lisbon (1985–1987) Porto (1991–1995) Guarda (1995–1999) Lisbon (2002–2005) Braga (2005–2014)	23 July 2011	28 September 2014	2011			[12]
–		Maria de Belém Roseira (interim) (b. 1949)	Porto (1999–2002) Aveiro (2002–2005) Lisbon (2005–2009) Aveiro (2009–2011) Lisbon (2011–2015)	28 September 2014	22 November 2014	–			[13]
8		António Costa (b. 1961)	Lisbon (1991–2002) Leiria (2002–2005) Lisbon (2005–2024)	22 November 2014	7 January 2024	2014			[14]
								himself (2015–2024)
9		Pedro Nuno Santos (b. 1977)	Aveiro	7 January 2024	24 May 2025	2023		António Costa (2024)	[15]
								Luís Montenegro (since 2024)
–		Carlos César (interim) (b. 1956)	Azores	24 May 2025	28 June 2025	–			[16]
10		José Luís Carneiro (b. 1971)	Porto (2005–2022) Braga (since 2022)	28 June 2025	present	2025			[17]

By time in office

Name	Time in office	Duration
Mário Soares	1973–1985	12 years, 55 days
António Guterres	1992–2002	9 years, 330 days
António Costa	2014–2024	9 years, 46 days
José Sócrates	2004–2011	6 years, 299 days
António José Seguro	2011–2014	3 years, 67 days
Jorge Sampaio	1989–1992	3 years, 38 days
Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues	2002–2004	2 years, 252 days
Vítor Constâncio	1986–1989	2 years, 201 days
Pedro Nuno Santos	2024–2025	1 year, 137 days
António Macedo (interim)	1985–1986	228 days
António de Almeida Santos (interim)	1985	147 days
Maria de Belém Roseira (interim)	2014	55 days
José Luís Carneiro	2025–present	48 days (Incumbent)
Carlos César (interim)	2025	35 days

Deputy Secretary-general of the Socialist Party

The Deputy Secretary-general of the Socialist Party is a position created in 2012 to replace the Secretary-general as the representative of the party in the case where the Secretary-general held the office of Prime Minister of Portugal.^[18]

#	Portrait	Name	Constituency	Took office	Left office	Secretary-general	Ref.
–	Vacant			31 March 2012	5 December 2015	António José Seguro
						António Costa
1		Ana Catarina Mendes (b. 1973)	Setúbal	5 December 2015	27 October 2019		[19]
2		José Luís Carneiro (b. 1971)	Porto (2005–2022) Braga (since 2022)	27 October 2019	9 April 2022		[20]
3		João Torres (b. 1986)	Porto	9 April 2022	13 January 2024		[21]
–	Vacant			13 January 2024	present
						Pedro Nuno Santos
						José Luís Carneiro