The National Political Commission of the PSD, meeting this Thursday, February 13, 2020, appointed Joaquim Sarmento to chair the National Strategic Council (CEN).

Joaquim Sarmento, who was also elected in the 38th Congress, a member of the National Political Commission, succeeds David Justino at the head of this body that works with the President of the PSD. At the 38th Congress in Viana do Castelo, Rui Rio said that the dynamization of the National Strategic Council is "an essential vector for the implementation of the opening of the PSD to the Portuguese". "We must get CEN up and running throughout the national territory, in order to give opportunity to all Portuguese militaries in the PSD according to their areas of political or professional interest. We must be able to offer spaces of militancy that interest people. Spaces, where they can exchange information, defend ideas and contribute in this way to the positions of the Social Democratic Party on the most diverse matters. This is how, with the intellectual elevation of our party activity, that we will be able to conquer the Portuguese; it is not with the discussion of places, nor with permanent guerrilla attitudes in the media," said Rui Rio in the opening speech of the magna meeting on February 7. Reiterating that "the parties exist to serve the country, they do not exist to give body to their small tactics, nor to the particular interests of its leaders", Rui Rio considers that CEN "will have to be the embryo of the trust contract that the PSD, in its own time, will have to be able to sign with the Portuguese". On the one hand, he emphasized Rui Rio, to modernize and refresh the PSD, attracting to the party activity the Portuguese who do not see themselves in politics any attractiveness. On the other hand, to "build the PSD's responses to the new challenges facing the country, through the production of ideas and solutions coincident with those of society itself". At the end of the first meeting of the National Political Commission, David Justino highlighted cen's pioneering character, which will continue to have the mission of bringing the party closer to civil society, in an involvement that "may be more effective in achieving cen's main goal: not only to produce public policy proposals, but also mobilize militants, sympathizers and others." Joaquim Sarmento, who served as spokesperson for PUBLIC Finance cen and was the author of the macroeconomic framework of the PSD for 2019-2013, is currently assistant professor of finance at ISEG, having been assistant between 2007 and 2014, and guest professor at the Catholic Lisbon School. He has taught in several national colleges (Nova SBE, Nova IMS, ISCTE, European and ISAL- Madeira) and foreigners (EPL, Dom Cabral, Insper, MSB-Tunes), being Visiting Professor at Getúlio Vargas/Rio de Janeiro. Additionally, he has trained and courses in several public entities: Court of Auditors, IGF and INA. He was a trainer at DGCI and DGO. He was also economic advisor to the President of the Republic Prof. Cavaco Silva, between 2012 and 2016. For ten years, he worked at the Ministry of Finance (1999-2009). He was a consultant to the Technical Budget Support Unit (UTAO) of the Assembly of the Republic.