Isabel Saldanha Tamborindeguy

The Most Excellent Isabel Saldanha Tamborindeguy MP ORC OPM
Prime Minister of Alcantara
Incumbent
Assumed office 10 May 2019
President	Manuel Fraga Touriño
Deputy	Pedro Rubalcaba Variño
Preceded by	Diego Vieira Pouso
Parliamentary group	Socialist Worker's Party of Alcantara
Secretary-General of the SWP
Assuming office 5 May 2017
President	Alfonso Reyes Rivera
Succeeding	Luis Guirao Carcedo
Personal details
Born	(1967-03-24) March 24, 1967 A Gracia, Alcantara
Citizenship	Alcantaran
Nationality	Alcantaran
Political party	Socialist Worker's Party of Alcantara
Spouse	José Alviño Uriarte
Residence	Palace of Gelmírez
Education	Universidade da República
Occupation	Politician Lawyer

Isabel Saldanha Tamborindeguy (born 24 March 1967) is a Alcantaran politician and lawyer, currently serving as Prime Minister of the Alcantaran Republic since 10 May 2019. She is also Secretary-General of the Socialist Worker's Party of Alcantara since 5 May 2017 and has been in other important positions as advisor of the party and member of the parliament.

Isabel was born in the city of A Gracia. Daughter of Pedro Saldanha Ibáñez and Beatriz Tamborindeguy Grandi, she was educated in the Colegio de María del Pilar and later attended the public high school Liceo Armando Guindo Giménez, from where she graduated with honours and having studied the orientation of humanities and law. Isabel assisted to the Universidade da República, where she studied law with a specialisation in labour and a thesis on Labour and Welfare. Following her parents path, during her time at university, Isabel became a member of the Young Wing of the Socialist Worker's Party and the Students Union at her university. During a short period after graduating, she worked in a private buffet as lawyer and later became part of a buffet specialised in labour. Her activity inside the Worker's Party took Isabel to gain a position as national coordinator of the party and later to become part of the Parliament of Alcantara. In 2008, she assumed as member of the Chamber of deputies, where her active role and energic speeches gained her recognition inside the party.

In 2015, Isabel became spokeswomen of the party inside the Parliament and three years later, her leadership took her to be voted as Secretary-General of the SWP. Between that 2017 and 2019, Isabel Saldanha was leader of the opposition under the National Renovation government of Diego Vieira Pouso. During the general elections of 2019, she was proposed as candidate of the party for the position of Prime Minister and became the first women to assume the office in the Republic marking the return of her party to power since 2007. Her investiture ceremony was marked by her efforts to sign a pact with other centre-left alliances inside the legislature and in May of 2017, she swore together with a cabinet formed by the SWP, the Partido da Terra and the Bloque Popular.

Early and personal life

The father of Isabel, Pedro Saldanha Ibáñez, was granted the freedom after being held imprisoned for his political activity as member of the Socialist Worker's Party and left-wing positions, for more than four years. Her mother, Beatriz Tamborindeguy Grandi, a socialist activist and writer was forced to leave the country and lived during most of her life in Nidwalden and Noordenstaat, before moving back to Alcantara when the dictator Touriño fell.

Isabel was born in 1967, a year after the fell of Touriño's regime and her parents re-encounter in A Gracia. Raised in the neighbourhood of Os Castros, she attended the private school Colegio de María del Pilar, located not far from the apartment of her parents. At the age of 12, she began assisting to the public high school Liceo Armando Guindo Giménez, also located in the neighbourhood. During most of her time as a teenager, Isabel was part of the student's union of the high school and engaged in several protests for more budget percentage for education. In high school, Isabel Saldanha played field hoeckey and was able to travel with her team to Cassonne and Monsa to play several matches; in her studies, Isabel followed her mother's path and became an avid reader, she has also said she used to write poems but thought they were not good enough to show them. In high school, she followed the orientation of humanities and law that allowed her to later assist to the Universidade da República, from where she graduated as a lawyer with a specialisation in labour law and having done several internships at buffets.

During her period at university, Isabel met with her spouse, José Alviño Uriarte, an Alcantaran economist with which she had two children in 1999 and 2002.

Prime Minister of Alcantara

Isabel Saldanha resulted the most voted candidate during the 2019 general elections. After a tough win against National Renewal, the Socialist Worker's Party concluded a long period of NR governments and meant the return of the centre-left party to power. Isabel Saldanha assumed as Prime Minister of the Alcantaran Republic during May 2019, after having achieved the votes of confidence inside the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of Alcantara. Her investiture was made possible with the votes of the Socialist Worker's Party, the Partido da Terra and the Bloque Popular, with which Isabela later formed a coalition cabinet that swore in front of the President of Alcantara the 10th of May of that same year.

During the first days of administration, Isabel Saldanha announced the creation of the Ministry of Environment and the increase of the minimum wage at a national level. Both measures were previously announced during the campaign period as part of her commitment to both the transition to a "more sustainable economic model" and the inclusion of several deprived areas in Alcantara. It was also during the campaign that Isabel committed to continue working with the relatives of disappeared people during the Touriño regime and once in the office, Saldanha announced the creation of several investigation commissions inside the Ministry of Defence; in a similar line, Isabel chose Azucena Guindos Cañete, a well-known lawyer during the Touriño period to deal with the Ministry of Defence in a sign of commitment with the historical reparation.

Shortly after assuming the office, the wildfires in Costa de Ouro needed of a rapid response. Isabel called for unity between Alcantara and its autonomous community, and sent specialised relief teams to hold the situation. She also travelled to the region in numerous occassions and congratulated all those volunteers and members of the emergency services for their enormous efforts. The wildfires pushed National Renewal to vote together with the government the creation of the Ministry of Environment.

Awards and honours

National honours

• Alcantara: Grand Cross of the Order of King Charles

Foreign honours

• Monsa: Grand-Cross of the Princely Order of Merit