Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Very Political Background of António Campinos, Allegedly a Forefront Candidate to Lead the European Patent Office Next Year

Jorge Campinos book



Summary: A look into the background of António Campinos, why he was born in France, and why his father (Jorge Campinos, who published the above book) left Portugal

EARLIER today we (re)published SUEPO's translation of an article that claims António Campinos may be the next President of the EPO. This fits numerous predictions made here last year, based on informed circles. Inside and outside the EPO many people expect Campinos to receive the 'crown', along with a pay rise.



"Inside and outside the EPO many people expect Campinos to receive the 'crown', along with a pay rise."Campinos is described as Portuguese, but he was born in France. He is believed to be a French national. Looking at public information about the past of the Campinos family, one of our readers prepared the following report. The main riddle/question was, does Mr. Campinos have dual citizenship (Portuguese and French)?




The short answer to this question is: we don't know.

It's an interesting proposition and it's certainly plausible.

But there is no definite proof either way.

Jorge Campinos and groupIt's not uncommon for those in the upper echelons of international organisations like the EPO to have dual citizenship.

For example Pantelis "Paul" Kyriakides who served as a Vice-President of the EPO under Ingo Kober and Alain Pompidou is known to have dual British and Cypriot citizenship. Kyriakides was was born in Kyrenia, Cyprus, in 1949, grew up in Cyprus and completed his education in Britain. He joined the UK Patent Office in 1976 and was transferred to the EPO in 1981. After being Principal Director in the technical fields of mechanics and electricity/physics, he was appointed Vice-President of the EPO at the end of 1999. Due to his British citizenship he had to resign as Vice-President when Alison Brimelow took over because EPO Vice-Presidents are excluded from having the same nationality as the President.

“During his period in exile Jorge Campinos was the international secretary of the Portuguese Socialist Action and a co-founder of the Portuguese Socialist Party in 1973.”
      --Anonymous
Another example is the current Vice-President of DG4, Željko Topić, who is rumoured to have dual Croatian and Bosnian citizenship because he was born and educated in Banja Luka (Bosnia and Herzegovina).

Getting back to António Campinos of the EUIPO, the following is known for certain:

António-Serge de Pinho Campinos, to give him his full name, was born in Poitiers (France) on 24 October 1968. This is confirmed by the record of his appointment as President of the EUIPO (formerly OHIM) published in the Official Journal of the EU in June 2010.

His father was Joaquim Jorge de Pinho Campinos (usually shortened to Jorge Campinos) who was a prominent figure in Portuguese politics from the 1960's until his untimely death in a motor accident in 1993. [photo at the top/left is of António Campinos's father, Jorge]

Jorge CampinosIn the course of his political activities as a student, Campinos Senior came into conflict with the Salazar dictatorship in Portugal and was forced into political exile.

He lived in France for 14 years until his return to Portugal in 1974 following the "Carnation Revolution".

During his period in exile Jorge Campinos was the international secretary of the Portuguese Socialist Action and a co-founder of the Portuguese Socialist Party in 1973.

The following translation of a Portuguese biographical note gives more information about Campinos Senior. Original Portuguese is at casacomum.org.

Jorge Campinos

Joaquim Jorge de Pinho Campinos was born in Lobito (Angola) on June 30, 1937.

After completing his secondary studies at the Liceu de Sá da Bandeira in Angola, he joined the Faculty of Law of Lisbon. He was leader of the student organisation "Home of the Students of the Empire" (1959-1960) and a militant member of the MPLA (People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola).

He was exiled in Morocco and then in Poitiers, where he completed his law and political science courses.

As Doctor and Professor of Law in Poitiers, he also coordinated various courses of comparative political systems and Public International Law, at the universities of Tours, Limoges and the Sorbonne. He was also director of the International Center and International Relations at The Hague Academy of International Law.

He joined the Portuguese Socialist Action and became one of the founders of the Socialist Party (PS) in Germany in 1973.

Following the 25 of April of 1974, having been in constant contact with Mário Soares, he returned to Portugal.

In the PS, besides being a member of the National Commission and the Political Commission, he was a member of the National Secretariat and the Secretariat of the Organization.

He was Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in the Second, Third and Fourth Provisional Governments, Minister of Foreign Trade in the Sixth Provisional Government, and Minister without portfolio in the First Constitutional Government.

He joined the Portuguese delegation in the negotiations with PAIGC, with a view to recognizing the independence of Guinea and Sao Tome and Principe. [Note: PAIGC = African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde]

He was a Member of the Constituent Assembly, the Assembly of the Republic and the European Parliament (1987). He was also Judge Counselor of the Constitutional Court (1982-1985), Member of the European Commission on Human Rights in the Council of Europe (1984-1990) and Director of the Legal Service of the European Parliament.

He died in a car accident in Mozambique in 1993.


Jorge Campinos was married to Maryvonne Campinos who is the mother of António-Serge de Pinho Campinos.

Not much is known about Maryvonne Campinos but it is understood that she is French.

“Jorge Campinos was married to Maryvonne Campinos who is the mother of António-Serge de Pinho Campinos.”
      --Anonymous
It is reported that she was a student of the controversial French philosopher, resistance fighter and communist author, Roger Garaudy (1913 - 2012).

Garaudy taught at the University of Poitiers from 1969-1972 during the time that Jorge Campinos was based there.

All of this makes it plausible that Campinos Junior could have dual Portuguese-French citizenship. But so far there is no definite proof of this.

“Being born in France would presumably entitle him to French citizenship.”
      --Anonymous
In an official resume from 2014 Antonio Campinos claims to be "a native of Portugal". However, this does not tally with the information published in the Official Journal of the EU which shows that he was actually born in Poitiers in France.

Being born in France would presumably entitle him to French citizenship. He may even have acquired this automatically if his mother was also born in France.

But it's important to emphasise that this is just speculation because there is no documented proof that he does have French citizenship.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Reboots Should Never be Necessary
"BUT WHAT ABOUT SECURITY!!"
There's Still Hope for the World Wide Web
Let's hope that the trajectory of the Web won't be leading us to over-reliance on Google, nor will it reward worthless slopfarms
Gemini Links 15/07/2025: Smolweb and Alhena 5.1.7
Links for the day
XBox is Rapidly Turned Into a Slopfarm by Microsoft
Slop isn't about efficiency and saving money
Microsoft's Halloween Documents and systemd, Wayland, Etc.
Maybe one day Wayland will be widespread. Or maybe not.
 
Links 15/07/2025: LLM Pollution and Pushback in Ukraine
Links for the day
Gemini Links 15/07/2025: xkcd, New Cert, and Alhena Gemlog
Links for the day
Links 15/07/2025: Press Freedom at Risk and New Facebook Blunders
Links for the day
The Danes Want GNU/Linux
David Heinemeier Hansson recently moved to GNU/Linux
Cory Doctorow Explains Why Software Freedom Matters, Whereas "Open Source" Misses the Point and Helps Monopolies
It's a very long article
BillPR (EpsteinGate-Bribed NPR) is Turning Into a Partial Slopfarm that Promotes Slop
"I went on a date with a chatbot!"
Two Weeks Passed Since Latest Large Wave of Microsoft Layoffs, More Expected Next Month
Blaming the debt on "AI" is just self-serving storytelling
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 14, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 14, 2025
Gemini Links 15/07/2025: Gemini "Style Sheets" and Switching From Microsoft GitHub to Codeberg
Links for the day
Coming Soon: Another OSI Scandal, This One Implicating Molly de Blanc
OSI has been fairly quiet lately
Outreachy & Debian pregnancy cluster, Meike Reichle evidence
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Again, "Lunduke is Actually Sending His Audience to Attack People"
Microsoft Lunduke is not trying to "protect" Linux
One of the Most Hilarious Things About the Microsoft SLAPPs
It's so ridiculous
Financial Support for the Free Software Foundation or the GNU Project
The FSF has extended until Friday its fund-raising campaign
Illegally Hiding (or Demanding Secrecy Around) Illegal Requests or Attempts at Extortion
unlawful communications like threats
Gemini Links 14/07/2025: BOFH Archive, Updating Old Palm PDAS, and Nginx vs Slop Bots
Links for the day
Ubuntu is Becoming GAFAM-Like
What does that say about Canonical and Ubuntu?
Slopfarms Which Take Real Articles About GNU/Linux and Turn Them Into Copycats Which Are False
Even before the LLM hype those were quite common
The Firm That Picks on Techrights is Accustomed to Working With Criminals
Techrights never did anything illegal. So why is it being picked on by people who work with criminals?
Microsoft Said the Mass Layoffs Were for "Investment" in "AI", But It's Also Laying Off the "AI" and "Copilot" Staff
Months ago we showed many so-called "AI" people were getting the boot and this time it's the same
DryDeadFish is Dead, Long Live DryDeadFish
We kept checking, hoping it can recover from some temporary technical issue
For Quite Some Time Already Microsoft Attracts Crackpots, Scams, and More
Occasionally we talk about the situation at IBM as there are many parallels
Links 14/07/2025: Chatbots Broken Again, McHire LLM Shows Limits of the Hype
Links for the day
Changing One's Name Won't Change One's Past
People who have earned a bad reputation are not magically "entitled" to reset
People Who Assault Women Are Not Victims of "Distress"
It seems like an American tradition. In a country with almost 50 presidents, not even one was a female.
Slashdot Media Turned Linux Journal Into a Slopfarm and Now Slashdot Actively Promotes Anti-Linux Slopfarms
Yes, "no-nonsense" apparently means actual nonsense
Adoption of Gemini Protocol Still Growing
Gemini Protocol is being obscured by the media - it doesn't help that Google 'hijacked' the word "Gemini" - but people still manage to find out about it, download a client, and use it
Links 14/07/2025: Arresting Photographers, Threats to Revoke US Citizenship Over Criticism
Links for the day
More EPO Leaks on the Way
We hope that Mr. Rowan will actually try to refute what we say and show, not merely point the finger at the messengers
Decommodification is a Corporate Strategy Against Communities
systemd is led by Microsoft and hosted by Microsoft
copyleft.org 'Hijacked' by the People Who Attack the Person Who Created Copyleft
So far there's nothing "tasteless" in copyleft.org, but that can change at any time in the future
Asking People to Take Down Articles and Videos Only Makes These More Popular and "Viral"
If you do something bad, one of the worst things you can possibly do it try to silence those who speak about it
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 13, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 13, 2025
Two-Thirds Towards FSF Goal, Richard Stallman to Give Talks in Europe
There are 67 left before reaching the target
Brett Wilson LLP "Takes it Personal" (Character Assassination, Not Professionalism). Everybody Can See That.
On behalf of violent men
Gemini Links 14/07/2025: Politicised Tech and "Leaving GitHub"
Links for the day
Pissing Contests and Pissing Off Everyone
people who came from Microsoft are trying to vex and divide the community
Microsoft Repeats the Mistakes Made by the EPO After We Exposed a Major Microsoft/EPO Scandal 10 Years Ago
That scandal was all over the media, not just in English
The Demise of LLMs
We've just checked BetaNews again. They've dropped all the slop and went back to human authors.
Gemini Links 13/07/2025: Sonpo Museum of Art and FCEUX
Links for the day
Links 13/07/2025: UnitedHealth's Censorship Campaign, Australia Wary of China
Links for the day
Firing Away With Nonsense
Or fighting fire with fire
Links 13/07/2025: Climate Crisis, GAFAM Poisoning the Water
Links for the day
Turns Out LLMs for Code Don't Save Time and Don't Improve Quality
Neither legal nor useful
The Microsofters Will Have an Obligation to Compensate Us
This story isn't just about Microsoft. It's also about corruption, there are many women victims, there is abject "abuse of process", and many more scandals to be illuminated in years to come.
Reproducing at the EPO Instead of Producing Monopolies for Foreign Monopolies With Their Price-Fixing Cartels
Does the EPO recognise the need of well-educated Europeans to bear kids?
Valnet Inc. Dominates Real (Not LLM Slop) GNU/Linux Coverage in 2025
And likely in prior years, too
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Fund Raiser Goes on
Later this month we'll expose another OSI scandal
EPO Staff Representatives Issue a Warning About Staff's Health and Inadequate Care
Even the EPO's own stakeholders (money sources) are openly protesting against what the EPO became
Links 13/07/2025: Partly Assorted News From Deutsche Welle and CBC
Links for the day
Gemini Links 13/07/2025: Board Games and Battle Styles
Gemini Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 12, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 12, 2025