Former minister and current MP Marta Temido will be the Socialist Party (PS) lead candidate in the European elections in June. The news was reported by RTP and confirmed by a party source to the Lusa agency.

According to the full list, Francisco Assis, currently a PS MP and former president of the Economic and Social Council, will be number two.

The leader of the PS, Pedro Nuno Santos, opted to renew the PS's MEPs and also chose former minister and current MP Ana Catarina Mendes to join this list.

It should be recalled that the PS Political Commission will meet tonight to approve the list of PS candidates for the European elections in June.

After serving in three of António Costa's governments, Marta Temido resigned as Minister of Health on 30 August 2022, believing that she no longer had the conditions to carry out her mandate.

After leaving her government post, she took up her mandate as an MP, a position to which she was re-elected in the last legislative elections and which she currently holds.

At the time of her departure, António Costa thanked Marta Temido for "all the work she had done", "especially during the exceptional period of the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic".

Marta Temido took office as Minister of Health in October 2018, succeeding Adalberto Campos Fernandes.

During her terms in office, Marta Temido was at the centre of the management of the pandemic, which began in 2020, but she also experienced several controversies. At the time, the closure of obstetric emergency services in several hospitals due to a lack of doctors to fill the shifts put pressure on the ministry.

With a PhD in International Health from the Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, and a Master's degree in Health Management and Economics from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Coimbra, the socialist has a law degree from the Faculty of Law at the University of Coimbra.

She was deputy director of the Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa and president of the management board of the Central Administration of the Health System, as well as a member of the board of directors of several hospitals in the National Health Service.

Temido also chaired the Portuguese Association of Hospital Administrators from 2013 to 2015.

Marta Alexandra Fartura Braga Temido de Almeida Simões was born in Coimbra in 1974.

It should be noted that the PSD and CDS-PP will also hold a meeting of the National Councils of the two parties today to vote on the candidates for the European Parliament and approve an amendment to the name of the pre-electoral coalition Aliança Democrática (AD), with which they will run in the elections.

It is already known that Sebastião Bugalho will be the lead candidate for the AD. The name of Rui Moreira, pointed out as the most likely by several media outlets, is no longer an option. Apparently, the mayor of Porto will have refused to join the AD lists, after members and mayors of the PSD Porto, including Vladimiro Feliz, who was the social democratic candidate for the Porto City Council, had spoken out against it. However, the reason for Moreira's 'no' is said to have been the fact that he was not the first name on the list chosen by the prime minister and PSD president, Luís Montenegro.

[News updated at 8:37 pm]

Read also: After controversy, Rui Moreira will not be an AD candidate for the European elections (Portuguese version)