EU commission favourite not known as a communicator

Portuguese Prime Minister and European Commission presidential nominee José Manuel Durao Barroso, 48, began his political life as a leader of the Maoist movement in Lisbon University in the lead-up to the revolution that ended the country’s dictatorship in 1974.

With degrees in law and economic and social science, he researched his PhD in Georgetown University in Washington and became assistant Professor of Law in Lisbon.

In the 1980s, after democracy took hold in Portugal, he joined the centre-right wing Social Democratic party and was Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1992 to 1995.