SIC has learned that the two Ministers of State for the Minister of Health have also resigned. Antonio Lacerda Sales and Maria de Fatima Fonseca will also leave the Ministry of Health.
In solidarity with Marta Temedo and, as is customary in these circumstances, the Assistant Secretary of State for Health, Lacerda Sales, and the Minister of State for Health, Maria de Fatima Fonseca, accompany the Minister in her decision.
Marta Temedo began her role as Minister of Health in October 2018, succeeding Adalberto Campos Fernandez. Two years later, in September, the epidemic had already reached Portugal, Antonio Lacerda Sales joined the Temido team.
More recently was the arrival of Maria de Fatima Fonseca, who, despite being part of the cast since 2019 as Minister of State for Innovation and Administrative Modernization, only this year took up duties in the Ministry of Health.
Training doctor, Temido’s right hand
Born in Leiria, where he came to introduce himself in the 23rd ruling cast, in Leiria, Antonio Sales holds a medical degree from the University of Coimbra Medical School. He was a member of the National Assembly of the Republic in the thirteenth legislature, having merged several committees.
He was an orthopedic physician at the Hospital Santo Andrés of the Centro Hospitalar de Leiria, EPE, until the beginning of the 13th legislature, and maintained activity at Clínica de S. Francisco in Leiria and in a personal office. In 2020, he came to the government, and he was one of the most visible faces, along with Minister Marta Temido, of the Ministry of Health during the two years of the pandemic.
From public administration to health
Maria de Fatima Fonseca, born in Lorraine, has a master’s degree in administration and public policy from the Instituto Superior de Ciências do Trabalho e da Empresa, a law degree from the University of Lisbon, and is completing a doctoral thesis in public policy.
In her career, she held several positions in the Lisbon Chamber, between 2011 and 2017, various professions, she is a lawyer, consultant and trainer, after also participating in the program of restructuring the central state administration. She was also an ambassador for the Decent Work Goal, of the Alliance for Sustainable Development Goals – United Nations Global Compact Network (Portugal), which reads on the government’s website.
She was Secretary of State for Administration and Public Employment Minister Mario Centeno in the 21st Constitutional Government and Minister of State for Innovation and Administrative Modernization to Minister Alexandra Letau in the 22nd Constitutional Government. In 2022, he went to health, but left after five months in solidarity with the resignation of Minister Marta Temido.
