Mário Alberto Nobre Lopes Soares was a Portuguese politician, who served as prime minister of Portugal from 1976 to 1978 and from 1983 to 1985, and subsequently as the 17th president of Portugal from 1986 to 1996. He was the first secretary-general of the Socialist Party, from its foundation in 1973 to 1986. A major political figure in Portugal, he is considered the father of Portuguese democracy.
Wilfried Achiel Emma Martens was a Belgian politician who served as prime minister of Belgium from 1979 to 1981 and from 1981 to 1992. A member of the Flemish Christian People's Party, during his premiership he oversaw the transformation of Belgium into a federal state. He was one of the founders of the European People's Party.
Georgi Sedefchov Parvanov is a Bulgarian historian and politician who was President of Bulgaria from 2002 to 2012. He was elected after defeating incumbent Petar Stoyanov in the second round of the November 2001 presidential election. He took office on 22 January 2002. He was reelected in a landslide victory in 2006, becoming the first Bulgarian president to serve two terms. Parvanov supported Bulgaria's entry into NATO and the European Union.
Ivan Gašparovič is a Slovak politician and lawyer who was the third president of Slovakia from 2004 to 2014. He was also the first and currently the only Slovak president to be re-elected.
Francisco Higino Craveiro Lopes was a Portuguese Air Force officer and politician who served as the 12th president of Portugal from 1951 to 1958.
Dimitris Avramopoulos is a Greek politician of the conservative New Democracy party, and former career diplomat. He has served in various high-level cabinet posts, including Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for National Defence, and was Mayor of Athens in 1995–2002. He served as EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship in the Juncker Commission between 2014 and 2019.
Oscar Luigi Scalfaro was the president of Italy from 1992 to 1999. A member of Christian Democracy (DC), he became an independent politician after the DC's dissolution in 1992, and was close to the centre-left Democratic Party when it was founded in 2007.
Américo de Deus Rodrigues Tomás was a Portuguese Navy officer and politician who served as the 13th president of Portugal from 1958 to 1974. He was the last president of the authoritarian and corporatist Estado Novo.
Marcelo Nuno Duarte Rebelo de Sousa is a Portuguese politician and academic. He is the 20th and current president of Portugal, since 9 March 2016. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party, though he suspended his party membership for the duration of his presidency. Rebelo de Sousa has previously served as a government minister, parliamentarian in the Assembly of the Portuguese Republic, legal scholar, journalist, political analyst, law professor, and pundit.
A dynastic order, monarchical order, or house order is an order under royal patronage. Such an order is bestowed by, as a legitimate fons honorum, a sovereign or the head of a once-sovereign ruling family. These are often considered part of the cultural patrimony of the ruling family. Dynastic orders were often founded or maintained to reward service to a monarch or their subsequent dynasty.
Jaime José de Matos da Gama is a Portuguese former politician. In the Portuguese government, he served as Minister of Internal Administration in 1978, Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1983 to 1985 and from 1995 to 2002, and Minister of National Defence in 1999. From 2005 to 2011 we was President of the Assembly of the Republic.
Prokopios Pavlopoulos, commonly shortened to Prokopis (Προκόπης), is a Greek retired politician, who served as the president of Greece from 2015 to 2020. A member of New Democracy, he previously was Minister of the Interior from 2004 to 2009. He was succeeded by Katerina Sakellaropoulou on 13 March 2020, who became the first woman to serve as President of Greece.
Luís Filipe Marques Amado is a Portuguese politician who served as Minister of Defence, from 2005 to 2006, and Minister of Foreign Affairs, from 2006 to 2011, in the XVII and XVIII Constitutional Governments of Portugal, led by the Socialist Party. On 30 June 2007, he succeeded to the EU Council Presidency on behalf of Portugal.
The Order of Merit of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is an order of merit of Luxembourg, instituted on 23 January 1961 by Grand Duchess Charlotte. Grand Master of the order is the Grand Duke of Luxembourg. Besides the five classes, a gilt medal can also be bestowed.
Fra' Robert Matthew Festing GCStJ OBE TD DL was an English Roman Catholic official who was the Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta from 2008 until his resignation on 28 January 2017, following a dispute with the Vatican.
Rudolf Graf Montecuccoli degli Erri was chief of the Austro-Hungarian Navy from 1904 to 1913 and largely responsible for the modernization of the fleet before the First World War.
João Bosco Soares Mota Amaral is a Portuguese politician. He served as President of the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal from 2002 to 2005 and President of the Autonomous Regional Government of the Azores from 1976 to 1995.
Edgars Rinkēvičs is a Latvian public official and politician serving as the 11th and current president of Latvia since July 2023. He previously served as the minister of foreign affairs of Latvia from 2011 to 2023, and head of the Chancery of the President of Latvia as state secretary of the Ministry of Defence, as well as a deputy of the Saeima.
Henrique Afonso da Silva Horta was a Portuguese colonial administrator, and a vice-admiral of the Portuguese Navy.
Ursula Schleicher is a German Christian Social Union in Bavaria politician and harpist who served two terms in the Bundestag from 1972 to 1980 and five terms in the European Parliament between 1979 and 2004. She served as state chair of the Paneuropean Union in Bavaria between 1988 and 1994 before becoming its deputy federal chair in 1995 and was a Vice-President of the European Parliament from 1994 to 1999. Schleicher was appointed Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, the Bavarian Order of Merit and the Grand Cross of Merit of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2001.
