Helena Roseta

• Name — Helena Roseta • Honorific Suffix — GCL • Birth Name — Maria Helena do Rego da Costa Salema • Born — 23 December 1947 • Birthplace — Lisbon, Portugal • Party — Independent (2007–present) • Spouse — Pedro Roseta • Children — 3, including Filipa Roseta • Alma Mater — University of Lisbon • Term Start2 — 19 July 1987 • Term Start1 — 25 October 2015 • Term Start3 — 2 June 1975 • Term End2 — 20 February 2005 • Term End1 — 24 October 2019 • Term End3 — 20 June 1982 • Constituency3 — Lisbon (1975–1980) Setúbal (1980–1982) • Constituency1 — Lisbon • Constituency2 — Porto (1987–1995) Lisbon (1995–2002) Coimbra (2002–2005) • Other Party — Social Democratic Party (1974–1986) Independent (1986–1991) Socialist Party (1991–2007) • Office4 — President of the Lisbon Municipal Assembly • Term Start4 — 24 October 2013 • Term Start5 — 1 August 2007 • Term End5 — 29 September 2013 • Term End4 — 31 October 2019 • Term Start6 — 12 December 1976 • Term End6 — 16 December 1979 • Relatives — Cuca Roseta (niece) • Office7 — Mayor of Cascais • Office5 — Member of the Lisbon City Council • Term Start7 — 12 December 1982 • Term End7 — 15 December 1985 • Predecessor7 — Carlos Rosa • Predecessor4 — Simoneta Luz Afonso • Successor4 — José Leitão • Successor7 — Georges Dargent

Maria Helena do Rego da Costa Salema Roseta was born in Lisbon on 23 December 1947. She grew up in a family of 7 siblings. A student with excellent grades, she studied at the Maria Amália Vaz de Carvalho secondary school and in 1964/65 was awarded a national prize given to the student with the best grades. After leaving school she went to the School of Fine Arts at the University of Lisbon, where she took a degree in architecture. In 1967, after floods that killed 500 people in the Lisbon region, she became involved with other students to support the flooded areas and publicize the facts, despite the censorship efforts of the authoritarian Estado Novo regime. Her future husband, Pedro Roseta, was another of the students involved. They have three daughters, one of them is Filipa Roseta. After graduating she worked with several architects, including Nuno Portas, Maurício de Vasconcelos, and Sebastião Formosinho Sanchez. In 1973 she was elected Secretary-General of the National Union of Architects. In the same year she participated in the 3rd Congress of the Democratic Opposition, in Aveiro, where she spoke about housing problems. She was detained by the PIDE, the secret police of the Estado Novo, in the same year.

After the Carnation Revolution of April 25, 1974, which overthrew the Estado Novo, Roseta joined Portugal's Social Democratic Party (PSD). She was elected to the Constituent Assembly in 1975, and to the Assembly of the Republic in 1976. In the same year she was elected as a councillor for the Lisbon Municipality. In 1978, the PSD formed the Democratic Alliance with other centre-right parties and she was returned to the Assembly in 1979 and 1980 on the Democratic Alliance list. Between 1981 and 1982 she was President of the Parliamentary Commission for European Integration, which prepared Portugal's entry into the European Union, working closely with Simone Veil, the first elected President of the European Parliament. Roseta also ran the official PSD newspaper, Povo Livre (Free People). Between 1982 and 1985 she was the mayor of the municipality of Cascais and in this role she was also to face floods when Cascais was inundated in 1983, with loss of life. In 1986 she decided to support Mário Soares, the candidate of the Portuguese Socialist Party (PS) for President of the Republic. This led to her departure from the PSD and subsequent decision to join the PS.

In a break with the PS, she launched the Citizens Movement for Lisbon in 2007. In 2008, the Citizens Movement reached an agreement with the then mayor, António Costa, to work together. Roseta was responsible for drafting the Local Housing Program in Lisbon. In 2009, the Citizens for Lisbon movement ended up in coalition with the PS. She was elected as a councillor, and was given the portfolio of Housing and Social Development. In 2011, she launched the BIP-ZIP Lisbon Programme, which was designed to boost partnerships and small local interventions to improve Lisbon's neighbourhoods by supporting projects carried out by parish councils, associations, local authorities, communities and non-governmental organizations. The programme was given an award by the International Observatory for Participatory Democracy (OIDP). In 2013, the Citizens for Lisbon movement renewed the coalition agreement with the PS for the municipal elections. Roseta became the President of the Municipal Assembly of Lisbon for the 2013–2017 term. In 2015 she returned to the National Assembly as a representative of the PS. She maintained her position as President of the Lisbon Municipal Assembly in 2017 as a representative of the PS but resigned in October 2019 citing personal reasons and wanting to "change her life". In 2020 she announced that, with the support of António Costa, who had become Prime Minister in 2015, she would be running a programme called "Healthy Neighbourhoods", which consisted of supporting projects for residents of poorer areas. In making the announcement she argued that Portugal lacked a strong public housing policy.