Maria Manuela Dias Ferreira Leite (born 3 December 1940) is a Portuguese economist, pundit and retired politician. Ferreira Leite served as Minister of Education in Aníbal Cavaco Silva's third government, from 1993 to 1995, and as Minister of State and Finance in José Durão Barroso's government, from 2002 to 2004. She was leader of the Social Democratic Party between June 2008 and April 2010. Since 2011, she is the Chancellor of the National Orders of Portugal.

Background

Manuela Ferreira Leite was born in Lisbon, Portugal, to a family with many generations of famous lawyers. Her brother José Dias Ferreira is a lawyer and a political commentator and sports commentator. She is a daughter of Carlos Eugénio Dias Ferreira (born 18 May 1908), a Licentiate in Law from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon and a lawyer, and wife Julieta Teixeira de Carvalho, a Licentiate in Engineering from the Instituto Superior Técnico of the Technical University of Lisbon and an engineer. Her great-grandfather was Minister and Counselor José Dias Ferreira.

Career

She is a Licentiate in Finances from the ISEG - Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão (formerly known as ISCEF - Instituto Superior de Ciências Económicas e Financeiras), a noted economics and finance school of the University of Lisbon (Formerly Technical University of Lisbon). Manuela Ferreira Leite has in the past held several positions within the Portuguese government, including Minister of Education during Aníbal Cavaco Silva's cabinet between 1993 and 1995, and 112th Minister of State and Finances during Durão Barroso's cabinets between 6 April 2002 and 2004. In both cases her politics of contention were targeted for its alleged excessiveness. In Education, as so many of her predecessors and successors but with worse opposition and manifestations, she had to deal with the issue of tuitions, which even though of low value remains hard to afford by many college students. In 2006, she was non-executive administrator of the Portuguese Banco Santander Totta. She was also, between 2006 and 2008, member of the Council of State, designated by the President of Portugal. She was elected leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) on 31 May 2008, leading the party during the 2009 legislative elections. She was unable to defeat the Socialist Party led by José Sócrates, although achieving a slight increase in number of votes and seats. As leader of the major party outside the government, she was the Leader of the Opposition. She was succeeded as party leader by Pedro Passos Coelho on 9 April 2010. After leaving PSD leadership she retired from active party politics (although she is still a member of the party). She currently has a weekly programme where she comments about politics and current affairs at the cable news channel TVI 24.

Personal life

She was married to Rui Leite, a Licentiate in Economics from the Instituto Superior de Ciências Económicas e Financeiras of the Technical University of Lisbon and an Economist, from whom she is now divorced and has three children:

Honours

Electoral history

PSD leadership election, 2008

! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 60px"|Candidate ! align="center" style="width: 50px"|Votes ! align="center" style="width: 50px"|%

Legislative election, 2009

! colspan="2" | Party ! Candidate ! Votes ! align="center" style="width: 50px"|% ! align="center" style="width: 50px"|Seats ! align="center" style="width: 50px"|+/−