In the same process, Lusa journalists chose the year’s devastating forest fires as the Portuguese event of the year, and the bid for independence by Catalonia’s regional government as the international event of the year.
Taking part in the vote were 129 Lusa journalists, of when 58 voted for Rebelo de Sousa as Portuguese personality of the year. Last year’s winner of the Eurovision song contest, Salvador Sobral, came second with 29 votes, while the president of the association of victims of the June fire in Pedrógão Grande, Nádia Piazza, was third with 20; Portugal’s finance minister, Mário Centeno, garnered 12 votes, and footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, nine.
Forty-two Lusa journalists voted for Donald Trump, who took office as US president on 20 January, as international personality of the year. Catalonia’s former premier, Carles Puigdemont, came second with 36 votes, Angola’s new-broom president, João Lourenço, was third with 25, and China’s president, Xi Jinping, was fourth with 18.
Rebelo de Sousa’s highly active presidential style contrasts sharply with that of his predecessor, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, and his publicly professed commitment to political stability at a time when Portugal has a minority government have attracted much comment and underscored the potential for holders of the largely ceremonial post to broaden the role.
This is the second time that Lusa journalists have voted on personalities and events of the year. Last year, António Guterres, United Nations secretary general-elect, was the Portuguese personality of the year, and Donald Trump, the international personality.
Portugal’s victory in the European football
championships was
Portuguese event of the year, while the US presidential election was voted international event of the year.