Manuel Alegre de Melo Duarte (born Águeda , 12 May 1936) is a Portuguese poet and politician, member of the Socialist Party.

While studing law at Coimbra, Alegre became opposed to António de Oliveira Salazar's dictatorial government. He was conscripted, and sent to the Azores and later to Angola, were his involvement in an attempt to military rebellion led him to jail. After serving his term in Luanda, he returned to Coimbra, before going into exile in 1964.

He would live the next ten years in Algiers, where he was one of the main voices of a radio station directed to Portugal, Voz da Liberdade (Freedom's Voice). The distribution of his first books was forbidden by Salazar's government, so they circulated in samizdat form. Alegre returned to Portugal in 1974, one week after the Carnation Revolution.

He joined the Socialisty Party almost immediately, and was elected to Parliament in every election since 1975. He is currently one of the vice-presidents of Parliament, and sits in the President's advisory Council of State.

Several of his poems were made into songs, sung among others by Zeca Afonso and Adriano Correia de Oliveira, and played by Carlos Paredes.

In 2004, he lost to José Sócrates a bid for the party leadership.

Bibliography

• Praça da Canção (1965)
• O Canto e as Armas (1967)