José Luís Pereira Carneiro (born 4 October 1971) is a Portuguese politician from the Socialist Party (PS) and has been the party's Secretary-General since 28 June 2025. He has been a member of the Assembly of the Republic since 2024. He previously served in the government between 2015 a 2024 and in the assembly briefly in 2005 and 2015. Carneiro served as the Mayor of Baião from 2005 to 2015.
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Early life
Carneiro was born on 4 October 1971 in Baião, Porto, Portugal. He studied at University of Lisbon.
Political career
Carneiro was first elected as a councillor to the municipality of Baião in the 1997 Portuguese local elections. In the 2005 Portuguese legislative election he was elected for the Assembly of the Republic from Porto, before resigning from that post in order to run for mayor of Baião in the 2005 Portuguese local elections, which he won with 51% of the votes, being re-elected with landslide margins in the 2009 and 2013 local elections.
After 10 years in office as mayor, Carneiro resigned from the post to become Secretary of State for the Portuguese Communities during António Costa's first government (2015–2019). After that, Costa chose him as deputy secretary-general of the Socialist Party. Carneiro served as Minister of Internal Administration in the XXIII Constitutional Government of Portugal from 2022 to 2024.
Polling in 2023 found him to be the most popular minister in the government of Costa. Following Costa's resignation as the prime minister of Portugal, Carneiro was a candidate for the leadership of the PS. On 16 December 2023, he lost against Pedro Nuno Santos in an internal vote. He was the lead candidate in Braga for the 2025 Portuguese legislative election.
Carneiro was reportedly a possible contender for the 2026 Portuguese presidential election but declined to be a candidate.
Secretary-General of the Socialist Party
After the Socialists' weak results in the 2025 Portuguese legislative election, where the party fell to third place in terms of seats, behind the far-right party Chega, a leadership ballot was called for 27 and 28 June 2025. Carneiro announced his candidacy and was the only candidate on the ballot, resulting in him becoming the next PS Secretary-General. On 28 June 2025, the PS announced that Carneiro had been elected Secretary-General.
Political views
Carneiro has been described as a moderate socialist contrary to his predecessor Pedro Nuno Santos, who is connoted with the PS' informal left faction, and António Costa who was a descendant of the Sampaioist faction. Internally he supported José Sócrates in 2004 and António José Seguro in 2011 and 2014 having served in the national secretariat of the later. In the 2016 presidential election Carneiro supported Maria de Belém Roseira, with whom he has close political relations.
As Secretary-general, Carneiro has positioned PS as a habour for all democrats, democratic socialists, social democrats and christian democrats, having attracted former CDS members to colaborate with the party, namely Filipe Lobo d'Ávila and Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos.
Carneiro has defended the blue economy, the youth, the housing crisis, healthcare, local power reforms and regime pacts with the Democratic Alliance as his priorities.
Personal life
José Luís Carneiro is married to Maria Goreti Carneiro and has two children.
Electoral history
Baião City Council election, 2001
Baião City Council election, 2005
Baião City Council election, 2009
Baião City Council election, 2013
PS leadership election, 2023
PS leadership election, 2025
PS leadership election, 2026