Leonel Nunes

Leonel Martinho Gomes Nunes was born on 11 November 1949 in the parish of Monte, in the municipality of Funchal, on the island of Madeira. His parents were João Nunes and Maria Gomes Nunes.

After the Carnation Revolution of 25 April 1974 he joined the Socialist Youth (Juventude Socialista) in Madeira, where he served as coordinating secretary. He later moved to the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP), in which he spent the rest of his political life. In the general election of 2 December 1979 he was a candidate in the Madeira constituency on the list of the United People Alliance (APU), as an independent nominated by the PCP.

Nunes worked as a receptionist at Reid's Hotel in Funchal. He was a union delegate and a member of the hotel's workers' committee.

In 1978 the hotel dismissed him, in circumstances that the union and the PCP linked to his trade union and political activity. He took the case to court and won favourable decisions at each level as the hotel appealed. After the case had been considered by the Supreme Court of Justice and the Constitutional Court, the hotel reinstated him as a receptionist in 1996, about 18 years after the dismissal. The PCP later described the case as a reference point in the history of Portuguese trade unionism and labour law. In 2001 the lawyer João Lizardo published a 246 page study of it, O processo de Leonel Nunes: 20 anos de um processo laboral (Campo das Letras, Porto), with an introductory note by the CGTP-IN leader Manuel Carvalho da Silva.

Nunes held senior posts in the Madeira hotel, tourism and catering workers' union, as president of its board and as president of its general assembly, and was still on the bureau of its plenary in the 2017 to 2025 terms. He was also a leader of the Union of Madeira Trade Unions (USAM), sat on the national bodies of the hotel sector unions and their federation, and was a member of the National Council of the CGTP-IN from 1983 to 1986 and from 2008 to 2012.

Nunes was a CDU candidate for Funchal city council in the 1989 local elections and was elected to the Funchal Municipal Assembly. He also served in the parish assembly of Monte. From 1992 to 2015 he was a member of the Central Committee of the PCP, and he was part of the party's regional leadership in Madeira. He stood several times for the Assembly of the Republic and headed the CDU list in Madeira in the 2005 general election.

In the regional election of 13 October 1996 he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Madeira for the CDU in the Funchal constituency, together with Edgar Silva. He was re-elected in 2000 and 2004, and in the early election of May 2007, held under a new single regional constituency, he was elected again. In 2011 he was second on the CDU list, and when the coalition won only one seat, which went to Edgar Silva, he left parliament.

In parliament he took part in the debates on Madeira's autonomy. In 2020 the president of the regional assembly, José Manuel Rodrigues, named him among the deputies whose work led to the 1999 revision of the region's political and administrative statute, approved by consensus. He later opposed a further revision passed by the Social Democratic majority, arguing that it lacked the consensus of 1999. In April 2008 he spoke against a regional proposal to criminalise drug use again, saying the problem could not be solved by changing the law alone. After leaving parliament he remained active, and he was the official representative of the CDU candidacy in the 2015 regional election.

Nunes was closely involved in Madeira's popular associations, as a member of recreational, cultural and sporting clubs. He was a member and supporter of Club Sport Marítimo, the Funchal football club.

Leonel Nunes died in Funchal on 17 October 2026, aged 76. The cause of death was not made public. The regional organisation of the PCP announced his death on the morning of 18 October, expressing its sorrow to his family and friends and highlighting his commitment to the cause of workers, his political courage and his political and trade union militancy in favour of a fairer society. The news was reported by Diário de Notícias da Madeira, Funchal Notícias and, through the Lusa news agency, national media.

The president of the Legislative Assembly of Madeira, Rubina Leal, sent condolences to his family, friends and party, saying his civic, political and trade union work had been linked to the defence of workers' rights. The Socialist Party in Madeira, recalling his time in the Socialist Youth after 1974, and the JPP party, which praised his defence of workers, also issued statements.

The PCP described Nunes as a historic figure in the link between trade unionism and regional politics in Madeira after 25 April 1974, whose path from Reid's Hotel worker to union leader, protagonist of an 18 year labour dispute and regional deputy traced an important part of the history of labour struggles and political opposition in contemporary Madeira. His case remains the subject of João Lizardo's book, and in August 2026 a public session on the case and the book was held in Funchal as part of a project on the island's social history.