“I have made no statement on this [presidential elections], I have not raised any expectation, and I am here solely to talk about Education,” stated António Sampaio da Nóvoa to journalists at the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES) Global Symposium held at Universidade Lusófona, Lisbon.
Responding to persistent inquiries from journalists about a potential presidential candidacy or when he might address the issue, Sampaio da Nóvoa reiterated multiple times that he was at the congress to “talk about Education,” his area of scientific expertise.
When asked if running for the Presidency was not an issue at all, he restated, “the issue is Education.”
“The issue is Education, that’s what I’m here to discuss, that’s what I’m working on, and I’m not going to make any statement on anything else,” he responded.
When questioned if not ruling out a candidacy meant he was considering one, António Sampaio da Nóvoa repeated, “I did not come here to make any statement on anything else.”
Recently, former PS secretary-general Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues and BE leader and former deputy Joana Mortágua publicly expressed their support for a possible candidacy of António Sampaio da Nóvoa for the Presidency, at a time when official candidates include Luís Marques Mendes, António José Seguro, Henrique Gouveia e Melo, and António Filipe.
António Sampaio da Nóvoa was born in December 1954 in Valença, in the district of Viana do Castelo. He holds a PhD in Education Sciences from the University of Geneva, Switzerland (1986), and a PhD in Modern and Contemporary History from the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne (2006).
The retired academic served as an education advisor to the Civil House of the President of the Republic Jorge Sampaio between 1996 and 1999 and was Rector of the University of Lisbon from 2006 to 2013, overseeing the merger of the University of Lisbon and the Technical University of Lisbon.
In 2012, he chaired the celebrations of Portugal Day, Camões, and the Portuguese Communities.
He ran as an independent candidate in the 2016 presidential elections, where he garnered 22.88% of the vote, finishing second to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa with 52%.
From April 2018 until November 2021, he was Portugal’s Permanent Representative to UNESCO.
