Former minister of the Economy, Miguel Macedo dead at 65

Miguel Macedo, a former Minister of the Economy under the PSD-CDU-PP conservative coalition government of Pedro Passos Coelho has died of a heart attack in Braga. He was 65.

Macedo served as an MP during PSD governments that had been elected in 1987, 1991, 1995, 1999, 2002, 2005, and 2009, in each case standing for Braga.

He was the secretary of State for Youth in the first absolute majority of Aníbal Cavaco Silva, between 1990-1991. Between 2002-2005 he was part of the coalition governments of Manuel Durão Barroso and Pedro Santana Lopes as secretary of State for Justice.

Macedo sat on Braga Municipal Council between 1989 and 1993 and was a council officer for the city between 1993 and 1997.

Under the leadership of Luís Marques Mendes, he held the position of secretary general of the PSD, between 2005 and 2007.

After Pedro Passos Coelho was elected president of the Social Democrats, in March 2010, Miguel Macedo became leader of the PSD Parliamentary Group. In the 2011 legislative elections, he headed the party’s list in the Braga constituency, and was later appointed Minister of Internal Administration of the XIX Constitutional Government.

He resigned from this position on November 16, 2014, following Operation Labyrinth, a Public Ministry investigation into the granting golden visas in exchange for bribes. Macedo was replaced by Anabela Rodrigues on November 19. And on July 2, 2015, the Ethics Commission of the Assembly of the Republic decided, in a closed-door meeting, to lift the parliamentary immunity of Miguel Macedo over the investigations into the golden visa case.

On September 8, 2015, he was charged with malfeasance and influence peddling. In November 2015, Miguel Macedo was accused by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the practice of three crimes of malfeasance of a political office holder and one crime of influence peddling. In January 2019, he was acquitted of all charges.

Photo: Shortly before his resignation the minister was a lunch speaker at the International Club of Portugal where he was photographed here by the author of this article. Chris Graeme.