Francisca Almeida

Almeida joined Portugal's Social Democratic Party and was subsequently elected as a deputy in the Guimarães Municipal Assembly. She was then elected as a deputy to the Assembly of the Republic in the XI and XII Legislatures, representing Braga. She became a vice-president of the PSD Parliamentary Group and belonged to the Parliamentary Commission for the monitoring of corruption. She was also on the Parliamentary Committee investigating the State's relationship with the Media, and on the Parliamentary Health Committee.^[3]

In 2014 she was required to resign her position on a parliamentary inquiry on military equipment, after members of the Portuguese Socialist Party (PS) pointed out that the law firm she worked for advised the State and she thus had a conflict of interest.^[4] In 2015 she announced that she would not be running in the national elections of that year as she wanted more time to dedicate to her career.^[5] While in the National Assembly, Almeida made frequent appearances on the television channel TVI 24 programme Política Mesmo. Similarly, she wrote regular columns for the Expresso newspaper. Both of these activities ceased when she left parliament.^[3][6][7]

In 2016, a book by Almeida, O Poder de Resolução de Litígios entre Regulados pelas Autoridades Reguladoras Independentes (The Power to Settle Disputes between Regulated by Independent Regulatory Authorities), was published by the Catholic University. The slowness of courts coupled with the technical nature of legal disputes led to the decision to allow independent regulatory authorities (ARIs) the power to resolve disputes. The Law has come to expressly recognize mediation as a mechanism for resolving disputes by an ARI. The book explores the place of mediation within the power of ARIs to resolve disputes. It also seeks to be a guide for the use of mediation.^[8]