Lídia Bulcão takes over as head of cabinet at the State Secretariat for Youth and Equality

The former state secretary for the Sea, Lídia Bulcão, became chief of staff for the Deputy Secretary of State for Youth and Equality, Carla Rodrigues. The order appointing her to the new functions was published this Tuesday, March 10th, in the Official Gazette of the Union, dated March 2nd, but effective from January 19th.

Lídia Bulcão took over the State Secretariat for the Sea in Luís Montenegro’s first Executive Office, between April 2024 and June 2025but did not transition to the AD Government as a result of last year’s legislative elections. At that time, Pedro Reis was not reappointed as Minister of Economy, leaving Castro Almeida with the portfolio of Economy and Territorial Cohesion.

The now chief of staff of the Deputy Secretary of State for Youth and Equality is 50 years old, she was a journalist in publications such as Weeklyo Euronews e A Capitalthen embarking on party politics. Elected PSD deputy for the Azores circle, she was in the Assembly of the Republic between 2011 and 2015, when Passos Coelho was prime minister, with Carla Rodrigues as a colleague on the parliamentary bench.and later was deputy to the president of the Regional Legislative Assembly of the Azores.

According to the biographical note that accompanies the designation order for the new functions, integrated into the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, led by Margarida Balseiro Lopes, As Secretary of State for the Sea, Lídia Bulcão signed Portugal’s accession to the International Alliance to Combat Ocean Acidification and led the processes of completing the National Maritime Spatial Planning and Management Plan, creating a Satellite Account for Natural Ecosystems, approving the 2024-2028 Marine Litter Plan, approving the PAER – Allocation Plan for Offshore Renewable Energies and approving the creation of the largest ECA in the North-Atlantic by IMO.

He also led the launch of the Action Plan to Combat Ocean Acidification and the preparation of Portugal’s participation in the 3rd Ocean Conference, besides having been sherpa of Prime Minister Luís Montenegro at the ‘High Level Panel for a Sustainable Blue Economy’ and having received the ‘Nature Baton’ from the United Nations, awarded to Portugal during COP29, in Baku (2024)for leadership in sea governance, for promoting the Ocean Pavilion and for creating the Network of Marine Protected Areas of the Azores.