| Paulo Rangel | |
| Office: | Minister of State and of Foreign Affairs |
| Term Start: | 2 April 2024 |
| Predecessor: | João Gomes Cravinho |
| Primeminister: | Luís Montenegro |
| Office1: | Member of the European Parliament for Portugal |
| Term Start1: | 14 July 2009 |
| Term End1: | 1 April 2024 |
| Office2: | Vice President of the Social Democratic Party |
| Term Start2: | 3 July 2022 |
| Term Start3: | 10 March 2005 |
| Term End3: | 13 July 2009 |
| Office4: | Secretary of State Adjunct to the Minister of Justice |
| Term Start4: | 17 July 2004 |
| Term End4: | 12 March 2005 |
| Constituency3: | Porto |
| Predecessor2: | Ana Paula Martins |
| Predecessor4: | João Mota de Campos |
| Successor4: | José Manuel Conde Rodrigues |
| President2: | Luís Montenegro |
| Primeminister4: | Pedro Santana Lopes |
| Minister4: | José Pedro Aguiar-Branco |
| Office5: | President of the Parliamentary Group of the Social Democratic Party |
| Term Start5: | 26 June 2008 |
| Term End5: | 13 July 2009 |
| President5: | Manuela Ferreira Leite |
| Successor5: | António Montalvão Machado |
| Predecessor5: | Pedro Santana Lopes |
| Birth Name: | Paulo Artur dos Santos Castro de Campos Rangel |
| Birth Date: | 18 February 1968 |
| Birth Place: | Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal |
| Party: | Social Democratic Party (2005–present) |
| Otherparty: | CDS – People's Party (1996–1999) |
| Alma Mater: | Portuguese Catholic University |
| Occupation: | Jurist • Politician |
| Successor1: | Ana Miguel dos Santos |
Paulo Artur dos Santos Castro de Campos Rangel (born 18 February 1968) is a Portuguese jurist and politician of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) who has been Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2024, in the XXIV Constitutional Government, led by Luís Montenegro.[1]
Previously, Rangel served as a Member of the European Parliament between 2009 and 2024. He also serves as treasurer of the European People's Party under the leadership of its president Manfred Weber.[2]
Rangel was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from the 2009 European elections. Ahead of the 2014 European elections, the PSD named Rangel at the top of their list.[3] In the 2019 European elections, he served as his party's lead candidate again.[4]
In parliament, Rangel served on the Committee on Constitutional Affairs from 2009. In that capacity, he drafted the parliament's 2010 report on the framework agreement between the European Commission and the Parliament, which demanded that MEPs should be allowed to participate in international negotiations that lead to accords that need parliamentary backing.[5] In 2014, he became the committee's vice-chairman. He became a member of the Working Group on the Conference on the Future of Europe.
In 2019, Rangel also joined Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. In this capacity, he served as the parliament's rapporteur on Croatia's accession to the Schengen zone.[6]
In addition to his committee assignments, Rangel served on the parliament's delegations for to the ACP–EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (2017–2019) and for relations with the United States (2019–2014), Brazil (2014–2017), Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo (2021–2024), and Montenegro (2021–2024).
Upon entering the parliament, Rangel was chosen as one of the vice-presidents of the European People's Party Group. Within the European People's Party, he chaired the Working Group on EPP Membership from 2016.[7] In this capacity, he notably decided to suspend the Fidesz party in 2020.[8] In 2021, he was also appointed to the EPP group's task force for proposing changes to its rules of procedure to allow for "the possibility of the collective termination of membership of a group of Members rather than just individual membership", alongside Esteban González Pons, Jan Olbrycht, Esther de Lange and Othmar Karas.[9]
During his time in parliament, Rangel launched a bid for the leadership of the PSD in 2010 but ultimately came second and lost against Pedro Passos Coelho.[10] In 2021, he again announced his candidacy for the leadership of the PSD and demanded a more assertive opposition to Prime Minister António Costa's Socialist government; in the vote held in November 2021, he was defeated by incumbent Rui Rio.[11]
In 2021, Paulo Rangel publicly came out as gay.[12] [13]
See main article: 2009 European Parliament election in Portugal. |-! colspan="2" | Party! Candidate! Votes! align="center" style="width: 50px"|%! align="center" style="width: 50px"|Seats! align="center" style="width: 50px"|+/−|-| style="background:;"|| align="left"|PSD| align=left |Paulo Rangel || 1,131,744 || 31.7 || 8 || style="color:green;"| +1|-| style="background:;"|| align="left"|PS| align=left |Vital Moreira || 946,818 || 26.5 || 7 || style="color:red;"| –5|-| style="background:;"|| align="left"| BE| align=left |Miguel Portas || 382,667 || 10.7 || 3 || style="color:green;"| +2|-| style="background:;"|| align="left"| CDU| align=left |Ilda Figueiredo || 379,787 || 10.6 || 2 || ±0|-| style="background:;"|| align="left"| CDS–PP| align=left |Nuno Melo || 298,423 || 8.4 || 2 || ±0|-| style="background:;"|| align="left"| MEP| align=left |Laurinda Alves || 55,072 || 1.5 || 0 || new|-| style="background:;"|| align="left"| PCTP/MRPP| align=left |Orlando Alves || 42,940 || 1.2 || 0 || ±0|-| style="background:white;"|| colspan="2" align="left"| Other parties| 95,744 || 2.7 || 0 || ±0|-| colspan="3" align="left"| Blank/Invalid ballots | 235,748 || 6.6 || – || –|- style="background-color:#E9E9E9"| colspan="3" align="left"| Turnout| 3,568,943 || 36.78 || 22 || style="color:red;"| –2|-| colspan="7" align=left|Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições[14] |}
See main article: 2010 Portuguese Social Democratic Party leadership election. |- style="background-color:#E9E9E9"! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 60px"|Candidate! align="center" style="width: 50px"|Votes! align="center" style="width: 50px"|%|-|bgcolor=orange|| align=left | Pedro Passos Coelho| align=right | 31,671| align=right | 61.2|-|bgcolor=orange|| align=left | Paulo Rangel| align=right | 17,821| align=right | 34.4|-|bgcolor=orange|| align=left | José Pedro Aguiar Branco| align=right | 1,769| align=right | 3.4|-|bgcolor=orange|| align=left | Castanheira Barros| align=right | 138| align=right | 0.3|-| colspan=2 align=left | Blank/Invalid ballots| align=right | 349| align=right | 0.7|-|- style="background-color:#E9E9E9"| colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" | Turnout| align=right | 51,748| align=right | 66.26|-| colspan="4" align=left|Source: Resultados[15] |}
See main article: 2014 European Parliament election in Portugal. |-! colspan="2" | Party! Candidate! Votes! align="center" style="width: 50px"|%! align="center" style="width: 50px"|Seats! align="center" style="width: 50px"|+/−|-| style="background:;"|| align="left"|PS| align=left |Francisco Assis || 1,034,249 || 31.5 || 8 || style="color:green;"| +1|-| style="background:;"|| align="left"|PSD/CDS–PP| align=left |Paulo Rangel || 910,647 || 27.7 || 7 || style="color:red;"| –3|-| style="background:;"|| align="left"| CDU| align=left |João Ferreira || 416,925 || 12.7 || 3 || style="color:green;"| +1|-| style="background:;"|| align="left"| MPT| align=left |Marinho e Pinto || 234,788 || 7.2 || 2 || style="color:green;"| +2|-| style="background:;"|| align="left"| BE| align=left |Marisa Matias || 149,764 || 4.6 || 1 || style="color:red;"| –2|-| style="background:;"|| align="left"| Livre| align=left |Rui Tavares || 71,495 || 2.2 || 0 || new|-| style="background:teal;"|| align="left"| PAN| align=left |Orlando Figueiredo || 56,431 || 1.7 || 0 || new|-| style="background:;"|| align="left"| PCTP/MRPP| align=left |Leopoldo Mesquita || 54,708 || 1.7 || 0 || ±0|-| style="background:white;"|| colspan="2" align="left"| Other parties| 111,765 || 3.4 || 0 || ±0|-| colspan="3" align="left"| Blank/Invalid ballots | 243,681 || 7.4 || – || –|- style="background-color:#E9E9E9"| colspan="3" align="left"| Turnout| 3,284,452 || 33.67 || 21 || style="color:red;"| –1|-| colspan="7" align=left|Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições[16] |}
See main article: 2019 European Parliament election in Portugal. |-! colspan="2" | Party! Candidate! Votes! align="center" style="width: 50px"|%! align="center" style="width: 50px"|Seats! align="center" style="width: 50px"|+/−|-| style="background:;"|| align="left"|PS| align=left |Pedro Marques || 1,104,694 || 33.4 || 9 || style="color:green;"| +1|-| style="background:;"|| align="left"|PSD| align=left |Paulo Rangel || 725,399 || 21.9 || 6 || ±0|-| style="background:;"|| align="left"| BE| align=left |Marisa Matias || 325,093 || 9.8 || 2 || style="color:green;"| +1|-| style="background:;"|| align="left"| CDU| align=left |João Ferreira || 228,045 || 6.9 || 2 || style="color:red;"| –1|-| style="background:;"|| align="left"| CDS–PP| align=left |Nuno Melo || 204,792 || 6.2 || 1 || ±0|-| style="background:teal;"|| align="left"| PAN| align=left |Francisco Guerreiro || 168,015 || 5.1 || 1 || style="color:green;"| +1|-| style="background:#6AD1E3;"|| align="left"| Alliance| align=left |Paulo Sande || 61,652 || 1.9 || 0 || new|-| style="background:;"|| align="left"| Livre| align=left |Rui Tavares || 60,446 || 1.8 || 0 || ±0|-| style="background:#202056;"|| align="left"| Basta!| align=left |André Ventura || 49,388 || 1.5 || 0 || new|-| style="background:gold;"|| align="left"| NC| align=left |Paulo de Morais || 34,634 || 1.1 || 0 || new|-| style="background:white;"|| colspan="2" align="left"| Other parties| 116,743 || 2.7 || 0 || ±0|-| colspan="3" align="left"| Blank/Invalid ballots | 235,748 || 3.5 || – || –|- style="background-color:#E9E9E9"| colspan="3" align="left"| Turnout| 3,307,644 || 30.75 || 21 || ±0|-| colspan="7" align=left|Source: Comissão Nacional de Eleições[17] |}
See main article: 2021 Portuguese Social Democratic Party leadership election. |- style="background-color:#E9E9E9"! align="center" colspan=2 style="width: 60px"|Candidate! align="center" style="width: 50px"|Votes! align="center" style="width: 50px"|%|-|bgcolor=orange|| align=left | Rui Rio| align=right | 18,852| align=right | 52.4|-|bgcolor=orange|| align=left | Paulo Rangel| align=right | 17,106| align=right | 47.6|-| colspan=2 align=left | Blank/Invalid ballots| align=right | 518| align=right | –|-|- style="background-color:#E9E9E9"| colspan=2 style="text-align:left;" | Turnout| align=right | 36,476| align=right | 78.17|-| colspan="4" align=left|Source: Resultados[18] |}