Luís Filipe Castro Mendes will leave Strasbourg to fill the vacancy at the Ministry of Culture on April 14th, according to the website of the Presidency.
Poet and novelist, Luís Filipe Castro Mendes was born in 1950 and graduated in 1974 in Law from the University of Lisbon since when he developed his diplomatic career in Luanda, Madrid and Paris.
The new Minister of Culture replaces João Soares who jumped before he was sacked by the Prime Minister, António Costa, after threats to give two journalists a good slapping.
Augusto Seabra and Vasco Pulido Valente, from Público newspaper, has written opinion pieces that the minister did not agree with, since which the allegations of incompetence, cronyism and lack of achievement as Minister of Culture have left few unaware of the basis of the spat.
The Prime Minister tried to calm things down by apologising to the columnists and saying that he held Augusto Seabra in particular esteem.
Soares tried to explain that his decision to resign was "for reasons that have to do with my deep solidarity with the Government and the Prime Minister and his political project of the left."
After accepting the resignation, Costa said to that he was certain if Soares had had the opportunity to continue in office, "he would have been a great minister of Culture" while failing to note his anger at the random appointment of Soares’ mates into two important positions, displacing those whose worth to the State had been proved as valuable.
Soares is the son of political heavyweight Mário Soares, former Prime Minister and President of the Republic and twice has been elected as an Algarve MP.
Having resigned, Soares today said the whole affair was like a slapstick comedy and that he is off to Paris or the Algarve to chill out for a few days before returning to be interviewed to put his side of the affair to the media.
In an interview with DN and TSF - which will be published in full on Sunday - António Costa said John Smith "would [to continue] authority, for sure."
However, the public moves that the prime minister was already dissatisfied with the action of the minister and that will not agree with the way John Soares announced the resignation of Antonio Lamas or the appointment of Elísio Summavielle, new president of CCB.
Luís Filipe Castro Mendes will need to employ his skills of diplomacy as he presides over a ruptured cultural offering in Portugal with a brief covering cinema, museums, theatre, music, poetry, galleries and a cut in the 2016 budget on top of an already dessicated sector.
Comments
So still no changes to the claim in the Portuguese text books of British Hegemony (land grabbing Imperialism) in Africa. And further back in time ... no discussion on why Portugal was ever set up and then 'protected' by the British over the centuries. Keeping out invaders with many British lives lost and thereby bizarrely keeping alive this anti-British "culture".
Even with this weekends storms no awareness by an Portuguese that, in the Age of Sail - it could take a week or more to sail round the Portuguese coastline. So making landfall in bad weather over the centuries being vital.
Now hunt down any mention of that recent major Portuguese best seller - Bifes Mal Passados (Undercooked Beef). See how skewed the Portuguese view of the developed world still is. And remind yourself that this is part of the Portuguese 'Culture' and how apt the 'thuggish' previous minister was.