Francisco Pinto Balsemão

Francisco Pinto Balsemão was born in Lisbon on 1 September 1937, the son of Henrique Patrício Pinto Balsemão and wife Maria Adelaide van Zeller de Castro Pereira, great-granddaughter of Pedro IV of Portugal.

Having earned a law degree from the University of Lisbon in 1960, Pinto Balsemão's pre-political career was in newspaper publishing. After working as a journalist and then as an administrator of Diário Popular (the People's Daily in English) from 1963 to 1971, he founded the Expresso magazine in 1973. He was also the founder of Impresa media group.

Pinto Balsemão was a member of the National Assembly from 1969 to 1973, under the Estado Novo regime. Along with Francisco Sá Carneiro, Joaquim Magalhães Mota, João Bosco Mota Amaral and others, he was a member of the "Liberal Wing", an unorganized group of politicians in favor of democratization. During his tenure in the National Assembly, he advocated against censorship and visited political prisoners. Pinto Balsemão resigned from the National Assembly in 1973 following the departure of Francisco Sá Carneiro.

In 1974, shortly after the Carnation Revolution, Pinto Balsemão, together with Sá Carneiro and Magalhães Mota, helped to found the Social Democratic Party (PSD), of which he was member number 1. In 1975 he was elected to the Constituent Assembly, which was charged with drafting a new constitution and served as an interim legislature. Pinto Balsemão was chosen as a vice-president of this body.

Following the victory of the Democratic Alliance (a coalition led by the PSD) in the 1979 and 1980 parliamentary elections, Pinto Balsemão was a cabinet minister under Prime Minister Francisco Sá Carneiro.

After Sá Carneiro was killed in an air accident on 4 December 1980, the Social Democratic Party chose Pinto Balsemão to succeed him as prime minister. He took office on 9 January 1981.

He had to cope with criticism within his own party, tension within the ruling coalition, and attacks from opposition parties. These factors contributed to his resignation in December 1982, though he remained the head of a caretaker government, leaving office on 9 June 1983. He had served as president of the Social Democratic Party from 13 December 1980 to 27 February 1983.

After his political career, Pinto Balsemão returned to the Impresa group. In 1992, he founded Sociedade Independente de Comunicação (SIC), the first Portuguese private television network. He served as chairman of the European Publishers Council and led the European Institute for the Media.

Pinto Balsemão was a member of Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group for over thirty years. From 2005, he was also a member of the Portuguese Council of State.

In 1964, Pinto Balsemão married Maria Isabel de Lacerda Rebelo Pinto da Costa Lobo, also known as "Belicha". The couple had two children, Mónica and Henrique.

His third child, Francisco Maria, was born in 1970, the product of an extramarital relationship with Isabel Maria Supico Pinto. Pinto Balsemão initially refused to recognize paternity of his illegitimate child and the two did not meet until the late 1980s. His wife, Belicha, also allegedly had an extramarital affair with television presenter Carlos Cruz, which was later confirmed in Cruz's autobiography.

Pinto Balsemão's second marriage was to Maria Mercedes Aliu Presas, also known as "Tita", of Spanish descent. They were married in 1975, after Pinto Balsemão's divorce with his first wife was finalized. The couple had two children, Joana and Francisco Pedro. Pinto Balsemão referred to his second wife as the "queen mother" due to her personal influence. She welcomed and integrated Francisco Maria into the family.

Pinto Balsemão died at his home in Cascais on 21 October 2025, at the age of 88.