Fernando Rosas

Fernando José Mendes Rosas is a Portuguese academic and politician.

Early life and education

Rosas was born on the April 18, 1946. He studied at the Pedro Nunes high school, and in 1961, he joined the school's Portuguese Communist Party organization, a party for which he was later a .

He entered University of Lisbon's Faculty of Law where he remained as an active militant. He was arrested in the repressive wave of January, 1965, while he was directing the student's association of his Faculty. The Estado Novo arrested dozens of activists from the main board of student resistance. He was tried and convicted in 1965. He served for a year and three months at a correctional facility. As he left this facility he dedicated himself to supporting activities for arrested politicians.

The events of May 1968, and the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, in August of the same year, led him to opt for the abandonment of the Communist Party. He participated in Portugal's first public manifestation against the War of Vietnam, supported by sectors that were linked to the Student's Democratic Left-Wing, organization which he helped found in late 1968. It was as a politician responsible for this party that he organized the 1969 manifestations in Lisbon. The second manifestation (with its epicenter in Coimbra, this time) also has his participation.

In August 1971, he was arrested for the second time and led to the headquarters of the PIDE. He was submitted to sleep torture for several days and then the courts of the regime convicted him to 14 months at a correctional facility.

When he was freed again, he returned to the anti-fascist activism. In March, 1973, he actively supported the campaign for the accusation of the murder of African Nationalist Politician Amílcar Cabral. After a new prison attempt by the PIDE, he escaped and went "underground" until the Carnation Revolution on the April 25, 1974.

Up to 1979 he directed the "Luta Popular" newspaper ("People's struggle" in English). He represented this organization for the two times Ramalho Eanes ran for Presidency.

In 1981, Fernando Rosas returned to University and began dedicating himself to journalism as a profession. He coordinated the history page of Diário de Notícias and its cultural supplement. His collaboration with DN was kept until 1992, a time when he integrated the fortnightly column of the pages of Público, another newspaper.

In 1986 he finished a Master's Degree in Contemporary History (19th and 20th century). He was invited as an assistant professor at the Faculty for Human and Social Sciences of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa. In 1990 he got his Ph.D. and is today the president of the Instituto de História Contemporânea (Portugal's contemporary history institute), an historical consultant for the Mário Soares Foundation and the editor of História magazine.

In 1996, he belonged to the Political Committee for the presidential candidature of Portugal's current (2004) President Jorge Sampaio.

In 1999, he helped found the Bloco de Esquerda political party, whose Permanent Commission he leads.

In 2001 he ran for President of the Republic, supported by the Bloco de Esquerda. He got 2,9% of the vote

In 2006 he won the title "comendador da Grã-Cruz da Ordem da Liberdade"