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Mister President of the Assembly of the Republic
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Ladies and Gentlemen
Portuguese,


I greet every Portuguese on this Day of Portugal.

It is a festive day, one on which Portugal re-encounters itself to celebrate the memory of its greatest poet and to salute the Portuguese communities scattered around the world.

There is no need to explain why Porto was chosen as the city to host the first 10th of June commemoration of my presidential term of office.

The name Portugal stems from Porto. And here there has always been the best of the Portuguese way of thinking and being: an unshakable will to triumph, a proud and loyal straightforwardness, an indomitable ambition to be bigger. Here, in this city of Porto, within the free soul of its honest, working folk, are the most lasting of the values of the country that we are celebrating today.

June 10th is the most propitious occasion for Portugal to think of itself as the future. We do not commemorate this date as an old-fashioned ritual in which a nationalism is exalted that makes no sense in our times. Nor do we see the 10th of June as a mere pretext for a commemoration that runs the risk of becoming meaningless as a result of too much repetition.

We must celebrate the Day of Portugal, Camões and the Portuguese Communities with a perspective of the past and a vision of the future. We have received the legacy of an illustrious past, though we must be aware that the best way to evoke history is to confront the challenges that the country now faces.

Camões’ work reflects this blend of pride for the past and concern for tomorrow that ought to preside over the options that we have to take from time to time.

On the Day of Camões and of Portugal we celebrate a Portugal that is not resigned to lack of ambition and has achieved success in many areas in which it wanted to make its mark and was successful in doing so. A Portugal that wants to view the future with determination, courage and the will to succeed.

We also celebrate the invaluable heritage of the Portuguese language, one that is shared by seven other states whose official language is Portuguese and use it in their political, legal and administrative practice, in technical and scientific papers and in literary and artistic creation.

On this 10th day of June I would like to call on all Portuguese, on each and every one, exhorting them to reflect on what they want and what they are prepared to do for their country. Between the Portuguese of yesterday and those of tomorrow, what part is reserved for the Portuguese of today?

In our personal and family lives, at work, in our civic behaviour, in our attitude towards others, in making full use of our resources, have we been up to our responsibilities and those of the generations that came before us?

We want a Portugal that is richer and fairer, a society not marked by so many asymmetries and inequalities, a territory more balanced in the development of all its parts.

We want a Portugal of better-qualified human resources, of more competitive companies, of quality public services.

We need an efficient, accessible system of justice that every citizen may use, confident in the celerity and efficiency of its decisions.

Lastly, we want a Portugal that sees itself mirrored in the best of its historic and cultural heritage and knows not only how to preserve it but also how to promote it and make it greater, in the richness and creativity of its manifestations.

The collective dissatisfaction that took us to far distant seas is one of the more salient facets of our common destiny. But so is the courage to face difficulties. Without it we shall be held hostage by resignation.

We know full well, and history has so demonstrated, that Portugal will essentially be what we make of it. No one will do so for us.

I therefore want, on this June 10th, to make an appeal to the Portuguese, to ask them not to surrender to resignation and not to be vanquished by discouragement or scepticism. To do so would be unworthy of our past, a waste of our present and a postponement of our future.

We ought to commemorate the 10th of June with confidence in our capabilities as people and as a People, in the certainty of a future of greater progress and social well-being.

Portuguese,

There is a certain tendency to blame others for a large part of what happens to us. We give the impression that we are not resigned to things, though, at the same time, we wilt in our will to change them. We believed that the riches of India, Brazil or Africa, or the funds provided by the European Union, would suffice to bring about the progress that we longed for.

Let us not deceive ourselves. In an increasingly interdependent, globalised and competitive world we are increasingly dependent on ourselves, on our work and on our ability to defend our interests abroad. The conditioning factors that we face confront us with new demands, though they do not prevent us from realising our just ambitions.

At heart, Portugal will be what we want it to be. Neither more, nor less, neither better nor worse. This is why we are a free, sovereign and independent country.

To be independent is to be responsible.

And responsibility means having a clear, demanding notion of our rights, but also of our duties both collective and individual, without which there will be no regard for demands and criticism as there ought to be.

It is therefore necessary to draw up a balance sheet not only of what we would like to see done but also of the way in which the actions of each one of us can contribute to ensuring that the collective result pleases us. An idea has taken root in our collective mind that the State is, for good and evil, the root of and the solution for all our problems. This has led to the birth of the relationship, not always mature and responsible, between the Portuguese and the State. When, for example, we are concerned about the lack of success achieved by our children at school, our first thought is to blame the education system, the politicians concerned and the teachers… But rarely do we remember that education is not only a task for the school but also a duty of the family, which cannot excuse itself from its essential role in the education of the children and in handing down the values that ought to guide them throughout their lives, as citizens and as complete, upstanding persons.

We often complain that the health services are insufficient to meet the needs of the population with those quality standards that other countries have already achieved. But we do not value sufficiently the strong contribution that we could make were consumption habits more moderate, were we to lower the worrying levels of alcoholism, smoking or obesity, all of which persist even among the younger members of the population.

Access to more material goods does not mean a better quality of life unless it is accompanied by the adoption of healthy habits and lifestyles that prevent the noxious effects that no health system can resolve. We must care more for our health if the health system is to be able to take greater care of us.

When we view the highway accident statistics with indignation, which put us to shame when compared to those of the other members of the European Union, we demand safe highways of the State, as well as well-equipped police forces and prevention campaigns. We forget that all this will never be enough if driver behaviour is not prudent and if they have regard neither for the established rules nor for others. I am not afraid to say that the attitude of the Portuguese on the road is an example of what the country should not be.

We are ashamed because situations of gross injustice persist in 21st century Portugal and because the inequality of income distribution is greater than in any other country of the European Union. But indignation in this must be accompanied by strict fulfilment of our tax obligations and of the solidary responsibility with which each one of us is charged.

We also lament cases of environmental deterioration that can be seen in many parts of our country. But are we not all responsible too, by act or omission, for the pollution that invades our rivers, for the garbage that soils our beaches, for the destruction of our historic and natural heritage?

In these and in other examples we forget the capacity for individual action and some of the most important duties of citizenship. These are simple gestures that lie within the reach of each one of us, gestures that can greatly improve a great deal of what we complain about today.

As I said in my inaugural address, “We are all responsible for our collective future”.

Portuguese,

We have just celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of the Constitution of the Republic. Our constitution includes a vast, diversified set of rights both in respect of freedoms and guarantees and in respect of economic, social and cultural rights. We must assume that bringing about these rights and freedoms, social rights in particular, has a cost. And that the State may bear this cost only if it can rely oh the contribution and initiative of each and every citizen.

The State is us.

We must urgently interiorise this republican pedagogy of civic duties. On looking around, we can find good examples of how a strong civic culture is an irreplaceable asset that, of itself, can make all the difference to the success and progress of countries.

Let us look, in this connection, at the Portuguese Diaspora.

The communities of the Diaspora have built abroad a Portugal they were unable to find here. Portuguese emigrants are the living example of non-conformity and of the need to adapt that ought to encourage us in times of uncertainty and at the crossroads of our lives.

We are duty bound, furthermore, to welcome and integrate those who, with due regard for the laws of the country, seek us out as a new source of hope and opportunity, the immigrants who come from other countries, prepared to fight for a better life.

We must think of the Republic as a community with a destiny and a future, made up of free, responsible citizens.

We must turn the ethics of responsibility into a sign that integrates the spirit of all the Portuguese, without which effort, work and wealth will be wasted.

I would like to address the young in particular, those who already live with the notion of a global world, who get on with each other and communicate without any frontiers and are therefore well aware of how important it is to take on and to expect of others a culture of rights and duties.

A capital of hope lies in our youths, as does a generous and demanding drive that must not be frustrated, but rather stimulated and extolled as good examples in every walk of the life of the country.

On this Day of Portugal, of Camões and of the Portuguese Communities I challenge the Portuguese to think of the country that we want and of the responsibilities of each and every one of us.

We all want to leave for future generations a legacy of a socially, culturally and economically richer country, a better Portugal.

Commemoration of the past on a day such as the 10th of June is meaningful only if it carries with it a promise of a different future.

On this day of Camões I challenge the Portuguese to answer the questions of another poet, Jorge de Sena:

“What Portugal is expected in Portugal?
What people must still be built up from these people?”

I know we can answer. Portugal will be what we make of it.

Thank you.