José Manuel Coelho

Who is José Manuel Coelho?

Jose Manuel Vieira Coelho da Mata is a Portuguese politician. He was a member of the Portuguese Communist Party until 1999, and still calls himself a communist "who evolved". He was substitute deputy of the Legislative Assembly of Madeira for the New Democracy Party, taking office in 2008. He became famous for the incident in which he showed a Nazi flag to the Parliament as a protest against the Social Democratic Party refusing to commemorate the Carnation Revolution.

Coelho was New Democracy's candidate for the Presidency in the 2011 election. He won 4.5% of the vote, coming fifth, which was considerably better than expected or forecast by pre-election polling. In Madeira, Coelho reached second place, with 39% of the votes. In March 2011, he joined the Portuguese Labour Party, of which he became the vice-president. He was a candidate for the 2011 parliamentary election, but the PTP won only 0.3% of the vote.