Mister Speaker of the National Parliament,
Prime Minister,
President of the Supreme Court of Justice,
President of the Constitutional Court,
Members of the Government,
Members of the Diplomatic Corps,
Mayor of Faro,
President of the Organizing Committee of the Commemorations,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Portuguese,

We celebrate today our National Day of Portugal, Camões and the Portuguese Communities. We celebrate the Fatherland, a common narrative told of the past of those who went by and of the future of the generations which will follow us.

The day is ours, as ours is the present time. In the eyes of History we will be responsible before the memory of those who preceded us and, above all, for the legacy that we bequeath to tomorrow’s Portuguese.

Many centuries have passed by and we continue to be what we always have been. A country rich in diversity, but which had the knowledge and the skill to maintain itself as a politically homogeneous unit.

We led Europe around the world. However, even when we were far away, we never forgot the place from where we departed. Not by chance, our borders are the oldest in Europe.

The people who live here went through great sacrifices, but knew how to remain erect when facing difficult times.

It was not easy to arrive at this day, the National Day of Portugal. We were only able to do so because we wanted to be free, independent, owners of our destiny. Nobody can teach us to be Portuguese.

Also Alexandre Herculano, whose bicentenary birth we commemorate this year, was marvelled by this singular characteristic of the Portuguese land. With this in mind, he wrote:

«When you look at a map of Europe and see this narrow piece of land stretched along the west of the Peninsula, and consider that it is the home of a nation that has been independent for seven centuries, it is obviously necessary to find out the secret of this improbable existence. The anatomy and the physiology of this body which, apparently fragile, has thus resisted death and dissolution must be admirable».

Portugal has, perhaps, a small territory and is even «apparently fragile», to repeat the words of Alexandre Herculano. But this apparent weakness is subdued by the indomitable will of wanting to continue to be as we are, because that is what we have been for many centuries.

National cohesion is one of our most precious assets. National cohesion is, prior to anything else, a demonstration of will, an expression of the desire to continue united, the capability, in difficult moments, to join efforts around what is really essential.

But national cohesion is also cohesion of memory. We have an unusual talent to huddle with the collective past, knowing how to find in it examples of the present but not allowing ourselves to enter into fratricidal fights over the past.

There are no wars over memory in Portugal, as proven by the dignity with which, in this year of 2010, we are celebrating the centenary of the Republic.

There is a building in the city of Faro that shows the importance of forgetting the little that divides us in favour of the much that should hold us together. The Lethes Theatre, whose designation evokes the river of oblivion of Greek mythology, was so named as a symbol of the appeasement that was everyone’s wish after the liberal wars. At the time, it was necessary to forget a civil war which divided the Portuguese, with brothers fighting against brothers.

In these days it is also necessary to leave behind sterile and senseless divisions in order to concentrate on the essential, to be able to look forward to what is really important, in a spirit of union and of civic harmony.

Portuguese,

The difficult situation we are going through is well known as are the demanding challenges we are facing. A time when many Portuguese fear for their jobs, in which many who are unemployed fear they will not find work again, in which young people question themselves over their future, A time in which families take stock of their lives.

But we cannot give way to the temptation of discouragement. If our horizon is one of difficulties and uncertainty, the more reasons we have to become united.

The admirable way in which the Portuguese stood up to help Madeira, in the sequence of the tragic storms on February 20, is the strongest proof that we are, as we have always been, a nation which prizes solidarity. When one of the parcels of territory is affected by disaster, all the others drive to its aid. The support we gave Madeira was a moving lesson of being Portuguese.

National cohesion must also be social cohesion. Since the first hour of my mandate I have given all possible support to solidarity institutions and to volunteer groups, I have emphasized the importance of giving voice to those who cannot make themselves heard, of including the excluded, of attending to the basic requirements of the neediest.

The Portuguese know how to share, as demonstrated by the extraordinary acceptance of the collections made by the “Food Bank”, from the North to the South of Portugal.

A country is made of people. For this reason, it is in the Portuguese, in all of them, that the priorities of a social and political agenda truly guided by the values of fairness and cohesion must be concentrated.

Social cohesion equally implies a consistent effort so that the civil society is able to muster itself as one.

Social justice is seemingly an imperative of human dignity, but it must equally be considered as a strategic guideline in order that we are better able to defend ourselves from the economic difficulties that underlie the times in which we are living.

The sacrifices we make must be equitably and fairly shared and, more than that require clarity and transparency, so that they are understood by all.

Sacrifices cannot be demanded without explaining the reasoning behind them, what finalities and objectives are being pursued, what is the destination to be given to the product we have given away. The more that is demanded from the people, the more the people will demand from those who govern them.

National cohesion demands that society reviews itself in the course of political action. Citizenship and power must hold together in order to join efforts, since this is not a moment when sympathy will be shown towards useless resentments.

The responsibility for the search of understandings which avoid ruptures in the social fabric does not just belong to the politicians.

In these times of uncertainty a social contract of unity and solidarity between entrepreneurs and workers is more than ever necessary.

It is time for full company complements to join efforts, capabilities and skills, guided by the sense of justice and realism that the situation demands. Improvement in competitiveness is decisive for the creation of employment.

Portugal equally needs a pact of unity and solidarity between those who are employed and those who have lost their jobs. Unemployment is the biggest calamity in our economy. It generates suffering in families and weakens the hope of the younger generations.

It is in these times that the network of State social security and of civil society institutions and family bonds as well, must constitute the basis for the preservation of dignity and of the courage of those looking for employment.

Portugal faces another challenge today, that of the generational cohesion. There are more than ever aged people who are unable to provide for themselves or have access to the health care which is their right.

In their turn, the young people who seek first employment are facing situations of uncertainty and precariousness that their parents never felt.

Portugal must be a Country where justice must exist for all age groups. We cannot allow that the two extremes of the age pyramid, the older and the younger, should bear the heavier social costs of the current difficulties.

The cohesion of a society will be seriously affected if, on the one side, stand those with stable jobs, secured income or guaranteed benefits and, on the other, stand those whose pensions are hardly enough to allow for their survival and those that are starting their careers in an environment of great uncertainty as to what the future has in store for them.

The inheritance which we bequeath our children and grandchildren today must not be a heavy load, but rather a legacy which will help them reach the legitimate ambition to improve their living conditions relative to their parents’ generation.

Solidarity between generations also expresses itself in the preservation of the historical and cultural heritage and of the environmental heritage.

Civil society has an ever more rooted conscience over the need to preserve the environment, as was demonstrated by the notable campaign «Cleaning Portugal» which, in March of this year, rallied approximately 100,000 volunteers for the defence of one our greatest assets, the forest.

The Portuguese are anxious to clean Portugal, they wish for a healthier, cleaner Country, they do not want to live in a heavy and unbreathable atmosphere, in a landscape surrounded by garbage and litter.

National cohesion also demands territorial cohesion. The asymmetries in development and the desertification and ageing that threaten some of the areas in the interior must not be a fatality. The harmonious development of all the regions must be an objective of national unity.

Portuguese,

Cohesion and unity are the motive why we have existed for so many centuries. To start with, our national condition, as a free and sovereign country, seemed to be an historical and geographic improbability.

Portugal was, in several moments of its History, an improbable nation. But the will of the Portuguese was stronger. We did not just prove that we were able to exist as a nation. We went further. We showed the world worlds that the world did not know existed. We established contacts between peoples, through paths where only seas existed and the fear to navigate them. We disseminated all over the culture of an ancestral continent that had for many centuries lived within its own image. All this we did without becoming any different from what we are.

If in the past we showed that Portugal was a probable country, in these days we must show the world that we are a credible country, a country with a course to follow.

What is asked from today’s Portuguese is no less than what was demanded from those who re-conquered the Algarve in the XIII century.

As I stated in due time, we have arrived at an unsustainable situation. Facing us we have enormous work, great tasks, and inevitable sacrifices. But Portugal was not built from dismay. It was not lack of courage that led us to India.

There are signs of the Lusitanian presence in all corners of the world. Past tracks inscribed in the age of stones. But also contemporary signs, cared for by the Portuguese of the Diaspora and by their descendants. Mingled with other cultures, Portugal exists wherever we go.

It was not through a chance of destiny that we became pioneers in universal dialogue. The Country is everywhere, far beyond this rectangle which has remained firm for more than eight centuries.

Portuguese,

The contract of national cohesion which we have to establish, transversal to Portuguese society, holds especial responsibility for politicians, members of government, members of parliament, and local authorities of the whole Country.

This is the time to undertake a supplementary effort to agree positions and to generate consensus.

Times of misfortune are moments of responsibility. This is not the time for quarrels amongst parties or ideological abhorrence which would divert us from the essential. The essential are Portugal’s material issues.

I will not hide, as I have never done, the real size of the challenge we are facing. We have to find in ourselves the strength to win. We must not lay down our arms.

I am certain that together we will win.

Thank you.