Francisco Pinto Balsemão, former Prime Minister of Portugal during the turbulent period following the country’s coup, who later stepped back from active politics to build a national media empire, has died, AFP reports.

He was 88 years old. According to statements on the websites of the Portuguese presidency and the media group he founded, Impresa, he passed away late Tuesday evening; the cause of death was not disclosed.

Balsemão was a cabinet member when the ruling Social Democratic Party chose him to replace Prime Minister Francisco Sá Carneiro, who died in a plane crash in Lisbon in 1981 under unclear circumstances amid lingering political unrest after the 1974 military coup that ended Portugal’s forty-year dictatorship.

A founding member of the Social Democratic Party and one of its leading legislators, Balsemão led the party in coalition with other center-right parties known as the Democratic Alliance.

He became Prime Minister, heading Portugal’s eighth government in five years, later describing the role as “the most difficult I have ever undertaken.” Facing sharp criticism within his party, tensions in the ruling coalition, and constant attacks from opposition parties over his unelected leadership, he resigned in mid-1983.

His legacy as a reformist Prime Minister included a 1982 constitutional revision aimed at removing certain leftist ideological elements enshrined in the 1976 constitution and freeing the economy from centralized control. The revision lifted restrictions on re-privatizing companies nationalized after the 1974 Carnation Revolution.

Balsemão also negotiated with the European Economic Community, now the European Union, on Portugal’s accession, which took place in 1986.