Jaime Gama
On January 11, 1972, Gama interviews Francisco Sá Carneira - a meeting that becomes famous and where Sá Carneiro says he's a social-democrat. Jaime Gama, who was only 25, gets recognition in the Journalism world. He also works for Jornal do Funchal and magazine O Tempo e o Modo
The expansion of the newspaper República in 1972 brought the most modern equipment and opened the door to several socialist personalities. Among them there was Jaime Gama, a young journalist who had passed by the editorial offices of the magazines Tempo e Modo and Jornal do Funchal.
An Azores native, born in Ponta Delgada on 8th of June, 1947, Jaime Gama went against Salazar’s regime very early. At 18 he was arrested by the PIDE. Four years later, in 1965, he was reunited with the political police but now in Rome, where he would attend a meeting of the Socialist International.
Before being one of the founders of the Socialist Party in 1973, he ran for office in the former National Assembly, by the Electoral Commission of Democratic Unity, in 1969.
On 11th January 1972, the 25-year-old journalist Jaime Gama came into the limelight with an interview to Francisco Sá Carneiro. It was then that the politician came out as a social democrat, and when Jaime Gama consolidated his career.
As a non-commissioned officer, Jaime Gama participated in the Carnation Revolution in 1974. A few days later, he became director of the Information Office of the National Radio, which changed its name to RDP.
A year later, he became full-time politician. He held the position of President of the Committee on Autonomous Regions Affairs and became President of the Parliamentary Group of the Socialist Party in the Parliament.
He became kind of a professional minister: between the years 1978 and 1999, he was Minister of Internal Affairs, Minister of National Defence and Minister of Foreign Affairs twice. In 2002 became the Minister of State. From 2005 to 2011, he served the country as President of the Assembly.
Today, Jaime Gama comments on current affairs in some media outlets, a perfect combination of the journalist Jaime with the politician Jaime.