Jaime Gama
Honorific prefixHis Excellency
Honorific suffixGCC GCIH GCL
OfficePresident of the Assembly of the Republic
Term start16 March 2005
Term end19 June 2011[1]
PredecessorMota Amaral
SuccessorMaria da Assunção Esteves
Office 1Chancellor of the Ancient Military Orders
Term start 114 March 2016
Predecessor 1Vasco Rocha Vieira
President 1Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa
Office 2Minister of Foreign Affairs
Term start 39 June 1983
Term end 36 November 1985
Prime minister 3Mário Soares
Predecessor 3Vasco Futscher Pereira
Successor 3Pedro Pires de Miranda
Term start 228 October 1995
Term end 26 April 2002
Prime minister 2António Guterres
Predecessor 2José Manuel Barroso
Successor 2Teresa Gouveia
Office 4Minister of National Defence
Term start 429 May 1999
Term end 425 October 1999
Prime minister 4António Guterres
Predecessor 4José Veiga Simão
Successor 4Júlio Castro Caldas
Office 5Minister of the Internal Administration
Term start 527 February 1978
Term end 529 August 1978
Prime minister 5Mário Soares
Predecessor 5Alberto Oliveira e Silva
Successor 5António Gonçalves Ribeiro
Term start 631 May 1983
Term end 619 June 2011
Constituency 6Lisbon
Term start 73 June 1976[2]
Term end 730 May 1983
Constituency 7Azores
Birth date8 June 1947 (age 79)
Birth placeSenhora da Rosa, Fajã de Baixo, Portugal
PartySocialist Party
SpouseAlda Taborda
ProfessionPhilosopher, university professor, journalist
Alma materUniversity of Lisbon
WebsiteOfficial website

Jaime José de Matos da Gama (born 8 June 1947) is a Portuguese former politician. In the Portuguese government, he served as Minister of Internal Administration in 1978, Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1983 to 1985 and from 1995 to 2002, and Minister of National Defence in 1999. From 2005 to 2011 he was President of the Assembly of the Republic.

Since leaving politics, he has worked as Senior Strategic Counsel at the Albright Stonebridge Group, a global strategy and business advisory firm, and as chairman of the bank Novo Banco dos Açores.

Background

Born at Senhora da Rosa, in the Azores' Fajã de Baixo parish in 1947, he is a son of Jaime da Rosa Ferreira da Gama (Matriz, Horta, Faial, Azores, January 1914 – Lisbon, 29 July 2003) and wife Lucília Vaz do Rego de Matos (São Sebastião, Ponta Delgada, São Miguel, Azores, 12 September 1916 – Hospital Militar, Estrela, Lisbon, 21 September 1987).[3]

Political life

He graduated as a Licentiate in philosophy from the Faculty of Letters of the University of Lisbon. He was involved in the opposition to the fascist Estado Novo (New State) regime, since his youth, and was first arrested, aged only 18, due to an article published in the local press. He was a member of the socialist Electoral Commission for Democratic Unity in the campaign for the 1969 legislative elections, won by the ruling Nationaal Union party, due to massive fraud. He was a journalist of the opposition newspaper República, in the last years of the fascist regime.

He was a founder of the Socialist Party, in the German exile of Bad-Munstereifel. He was elected for his party as a Deputy to the Assembly of the Republic for the Azores from 1975 and for Lisbon from 1983.

In the 1st Constitutional Government, he was Minister of Internal Affairs (1978), and Minister of Foreign Affairs in the 9th Constitutional Government, from 1983 to 1985. He returned to the same ministry, in António Guterres' governments, from 1995 to 2002, and was also Minister of National Defence, in 1999, and Minister of State from 1999 to 2002.[4]

He was President of the United Nations Security Council during June 1998. He was the chairman of the Presidency of the Council of Europe from 1 January 2002 until 6 April 2002, when he lost his post as Foreign Minister when the new government of José Manuel Durão Barroso took office in Portugal.

From 2005 to 2011, he was President of the Assembly of the Republic.

Foreign policy

As Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jaime Gama signed the Accession Treaty of Portugal to the European Communities, the Friendship, Cooperation and Consultation Treaty with Brazil, and initiated and concluded negotiations with China on the handover of Macau. He negotiated and signed the New York Agreements between the UN, Indonesia, and Portugal that led to the self-determination and independence of East Timor. On several occasions, he managed crisis and peace and reconciliation efforts in Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau. Jaime Gama was the Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2002 when Angola reached peace after a 27-year civil war.

Jaime Gama proposed, negotiated and launched the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP).

As Foreign Minister he proposed and organized, with Algeria and Egypt, the first Africa-EU Summit, paving the way for the Africa-EU Partnership. As Speaker of the Parliament he negotiated and implemented the Parliamentary Forum of the Ibero-American Community of Nations.

Life after politics

Jaime Gama is Senior Strategic Counsel at the Albright Stonebridge Group, a global strategy and business advisory firm led by former U.S. Secretary of State in the Clinton administration Madeleine Albright and former Commerce Secretary and Kellogg Company CEO Carlos Gutierrez.[5]

Presently, he is a member of the General Council of the University of Lisbon, of the supervisory board and of the Strategy Board of the Political Studies Institute, both of the Lisbon Catholic University, of the European Council on Foreign Relations and of the Aspen Ministers Forum.

In addition, he was the chairman of the Board of Directors of the bank Novo Banco dos Açores, is chairman of the supervisory board for the electronic newspaper "Observador" and a member of the Board of Directors of the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation.

Honours

National

Foreign

Family

He married in Lisbon on 18 September 1971 Alda Taborda and their son, João Taborda da Gama, born in 1977, is a Tax Law Professor of the Law School of the Catholic University of Portugal. They have five grandchildren.[9]

References

  1. ^ "Antigos Presidentes da Assembleia da República (Jaime Gama)". parlamento.pt. Assembleia da República. Retrieved 31 July 2024.
  2. ^ "As legislaturas da Assembleia da República"
  3. ^ "Jaime José Matos da Gama, * 1947 | Geneall.net"
  4. ^ "Jaime Gama (Biografia)". parlamento.pt. Assembleia da República. Retrieved 31 July 2024.
  5. ^ "About Us | Albright Stonebridge Group"
  6. ^ "Cidadãos Nacionais Agraciados com Ordens Portuguesas". Página Oficial das Ordens Honoríficas Portuguesas. Retrieved 29 January 2017.
  7. ^ "Cidadãos Nacionais Agraciados com Ordens Estrangeiras". Página Oficial das Ordens Honoríficas Portuguesas. Retrieved 29 January 2017.
  8. ^ "Resolución N° 749/997". www.impo.com.uy. Retrieved 2020-11-27.
  9. ^ "Faculdade de Direito da Universidade Católica Portuguesa - Escola de Lisboa". Archived from the original on 2012-01-22. Retrieved 2012-07-16.
  • Os Presidentes do Parlamento (Presidents of the Portuguese Parliament), Assembly of the Republic

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