EU lawmaker (Partido Social Democrata – EPP) Paulo Rangel will be the number two in the government led by Luís Montenegro, assuming the position of Minister of State and Foreign Affairs, his first experience as a minister.

At 56, he has already been the PSD’s parliamentary leader, a two-time candidate for the party’s presidency and, between 2004 and 2005, assistant secretary of state to the Minister of Justice, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, during the six months or so of the PSD/CDS-PP government led by Pedro Santana Lopes.

Two other Portuguese MEPs from PSD are also part of the government, announced on Thursday.

José Manuel Fernandes, coordinator of the PSD parliamentary group in the European Parliament, will head the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, and Maria da Graça Carvalho will be minister of Environment and Energy.

Another MEP, Nuno Melo, a member of the Democratic Alliance coalition that won the snap elections, was appointed Minister of Defence.

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Puigdemont presents his pro-independence candidacy for the Catalan elections

Former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, of the right-wing separatist party Junts per Catalunya (JxCat, Together for Catalonia), will run in the snap regional elections on 12 May on a multi-formation platform which combines his name with that of his pro-independence formation: “Junts + Puigdemont per Catalunya”.