I was challenged to attend this session honouring Dr. Miguel Veiga. Since Miguel Veiga is the person concerned, you will understand my use of the word challenge.

Knowing that I would be asked to say a few words concerning the person honoured, I asked myself: what could I say that wouldn’t have been foreseen by those who knew him better, who were closer to him, that could better enhance his qualities, or dare to reveal his flaws?

But, as my presence here proves, I accepted. I owe it to the respect I have for Dr. Miguel Veiga. I will try to be fair to the honoured personality.

How can one be fair with a human figure such as Dr. Miguel Veiga?

The identity of each person is forged in a crucible where several seasonings are harmoniously mixed: birth place, family, culture, profession, fundamental values and motivations, friends, the search for the truth about oneself.

Before us we have a man of Porto, his family originating in the province of Beira and in France, with a classic culture but deprived of gods, an illustrious jurist, a man of strength and conviction, with many durable friendships, an addict of the joy of life and of knowledge. These are the many facets offered by Dr. Miguel Veiga’s personality!

Can we possibly find a line of communication which provides a sense to his life? Every life has a line of communication and in Dr. Miguel Veiga I find the smile that he was always able to provide it with.

With the man we are honouring today, we have learnt that he who can smile on life is awarded a prize: life also smiles on him.

This cosmopolitan man of Porto, seduced by the sacred fire of culture and the arts, learnt how to reconcile the ethical with the aesthetic dimension, thus achieving the ideal of life propounded by the classics that he so much admires and cultivates.

He has been a tireless follower of the cult of friendship, as he is wont to say: “Friendship is the place on earth where I prefer to live in”. Blessed are those that know the value of friendship, since they have true friends.

We can even state that his biography is a beautiful romance on the love of life. A life which is a romance: a splendid image when referring to someone who is dedicated to adoring books and – in his own words – always carries a poem in his pocket.

For this lover of poets, the spoken word is primeval. And it is also a professional tool for whoever lives advocacy as a humanist and a civic magistracy: in short, as an exercise in freedom. Isn’t juridical work his passion, the only one, jointly with freedom, to which he has always been faithful? – the words are once again his own.

In advocacy he could exercise his gift for words. The exercise of his freedom led him to party politics. There again, Dr. Miguel Veiga is not known for his silence. Listening to him is to feel the pulse to interfere and the need to speak. Listening to him is also to feel the strength of his character and his civic courage.

His words, very often sharp – it also happened that Prof. Cavaco Silva was targeted – are genuine. They are words that reveal in him fearlessness and audacity.

That is why I see his truer picture in a simple newspaper article, dated a few years ago, that thus described a certain political meeting:

“… there were practically no discordant voices, only Miguel Veiga fired against …” (DN 02.07.2004)

That is his picture. He always wanted to out the truth, his truth – even if in disagreement, even if on his own. That was his way, such as Sá Carneiro, of whom he was a true friend, to follow on the exciting discovery of a Portuguese promised land, freer, brotherly, and more equitable.

It was, above all, the way he found to fetch for himself a coherent and full life, rich and true.

It is said that in Portugal we prefer to honour the dead. There is at least one good reason for this: the dead will not have the opportunity to disappoint us.

When we honour those that are still with us we can feel that they still have the possibility to reverse what we commend them for. With Dr. Miguel Veiga we do not run this risk.

Let us listen to his own words: “Time counts for much and is worth nothing. Men say that time passes, time says that men pass”.

Very true, dear Dr. Miguel Veiga.

But there are men that do not pass: those that give the example. I am certain that we will continue to hear the echo of that voice that claims for Justice and Freedom. We will, after all, hear it now, in just a moment, in another magnificent oratorical exercise which, as we all know, will only be amiss … in the capacity to synthesize.

Dr. Miguel Veiga recently stated: “Just as cats, I like being caressed”. He likes being cared for, in effect. The care with which this festive gathering has been dedicated to him, and which I am very pleased to have joined, will certainly please the feline character of the eternal fighter we are honouring today.