Barroso, José Manuel Durão [key], 1956–, Portuguese politician, b. Lisbon. A leftist activist while in law school, he became a Social Democrat in 1980 and was first elected to the Portuguese parliament in 1985. He served as foreign minister from 1992 to 1995, and in 1999 became Social Democratic party leader. As prime minister (2002–4) of a center-right coalition government, he enacted an unpopular austerity program to reduce the budget deficit and supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He resigned in 2004 after he was chosen as a compromise candidate to succeed Romano Prodi as president of the European Commission, the European Union's executive body. The signing (2007) and subsequent ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, a package of EU reforms, was the major accomplishment of his presidency. He was elected to a second term in 2009 and stepped down in 2014. He was succeeded as president by Jean-Claude Juncker. In 2016 Barroso was named non-executive chairman of Goldman Sachs International and became an adviser to Goldman Sachs.
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