Welcome to the Official page of the Presidency of the Portuguese Republic

President of the Assembly of the Republic,
Prime Minister,
President of the Supreme Court of Justice,
President of the Constitutional Court,
Members of Government,
Members of the Diplomatic Corps,
Mayor of Viana do Castelo,
Chairman of the Organising Committee of the Commemorations,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Fellow citizens,

This year we celebrate the 10th of June in this beautiful town of Viana do Castelo, which Frei Luis de Sousa called Viana de Portugal.

The 10th of June is the day on which Portugal commemorates its identity and reflects on its best aspects: its poet, Luis de Camões, and its language, which for centuries we have used to think and communicate; its heroes and all those who, with greater or lesser renown, make us feel proud to continue being an independent nation.

There are few places where our collective identity is so clearly marked as here, in this region where Viana do Castelo is located.

This is the cradle of Galaico-Portuguese, the origin of our mother tongue, which today we share with seven other Portuguese-speaking countries.

Here was born the idea and the desire to take our destiny into our own hands and become independent.

Here, we all feel that we return to our roots.

As I have already stated in previous years, however, the 10th of June cannot and must not be reduced to a nostalgic and outdated ritual.

Instead, the 10th of June must be an occasion to gather from history the inspiration and confidence we need to confront the future.

The 10th of June is the most appropriate moment to declare what we can and want to do, based on what those before us did and bequeathed to us.

We are a people who rose as an independent State, asserted our will in the international order, creating effective and lasting institutions which have ensured the survival of the nation, despite all the vicissitudes it has encountered.

Furthermore, we are a people that went to sea, travelled to the seven parts of the world, and left behind deeds that are universally recognised.

Are we today, worthy of that past?

Are our institutions, our companies, our society, responding to the challenges of the present?

Are we taking full advantage of the potentialities left us by our ancestors, so that we can convey to the coming generations that reality and that promise, that will and that destiny?

It is well-known that from the start we had scarce natural resources, which also led to successive migratory flows. We have, however, other resources that perhaps we may not be using as well as we should.

During my visits abroad as President of the Republic and through the international contacts I have made with those who visit us, I have noticed that the idea that Portugal went in search of adventure, encountering a variety of peoples and cultures, is more than just a memory that has vanished in time; on the contrary it is a constant image that is still alive.

From Europe to the United States, from India to Brazil, from Mozambique to many states in the Middle East, there are not only material and spiritual vestiges of our presence in those lands, but above all a generalised acknowledgment of our capacity for integration and at the same time for being open to others.

This universality, which has become our true brand image, is rooted in History.
Portugal did not merely travel the world, fraternising vaguely with other people that it encountered or with whom it traded.

Portugal really connected and mingled with other peoples, set down roots far from home, launched the bases for new nations and bridges for the international dialogue that we so much call for today.

But in current times Portuguese universality is still a visible fact. A universality such as the one mentioned by Eduardo Lourenço, when he tells us that “The universal is not a space, it is the universality of the look that thinks it”.

It would indeed be strange if such a vast and prolonged universalist experience had not left marks on how we behave, how we act and how we see the world.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Proof of the actuality of our universality are the communities of Portuguese emigrants or those of Portuguese origin, who are often quoted as an example of honesty by those with whom they work and everywhere praised for their enterprising capacity.

The success of these communities is no doubt linked to their ability to adapt to different environments, whilst at the same time maintaining a strong link to their origins.

If today, which is the Day of Portugal and Camões, is also called the Day of the Portuguese Communities, that is because we recognise that they are rightful members of our common motherland.

The Portuguese emigrant communities are the most stable representation of our people and our culture abroad, a culture that reasserts its identity through its dialogue with difference.

Our military and our security forces who have been called to perform peace-keeping and interposition missions in zones of conflict constitute through their actions another living example of the Portuguese facility in integration.

The many compliments they have received are unanimous in recording these soldiers’ professionalism, discipline and bravery, but also the unique way in which they relate to the local populations, which makes them particularly gifted to serve as mediators in conflict zones.

Besides, there are signs that a new generation of entrepreneurs is beginning to adapt to the global market and creating or reformulating businesses that are capable of competing wherever they find opportunities in their respective business areas.

Portugal has contributed actively to the consolidation of the European project, a project that is decisive not only for the development and harmony of the Old Continent but also for international detente and the affirmation of the values of peace and dialogue between all peoples.

On the three occasions when it held the Presidency of the Union, Portugal always demonstrated competence, diplomacy and ingenuity in reaching agreements and decisions. The Treaty of Lisbon, approved in the 2nd semester of 2007, represents an unequivocal victory of diplomacy and is a decisive instrument in moving away from the relative impasse that threatened European construction following some countries’ rejection of the previous treaty.

Besides the institutional volet, the last Portuguese Presidency also achieved important progress in the Union’s foreign relations. This progress, in particular the summits with Brazil, India, China, Russia, Ukraine, Africa and ASEAN, are quite clearly marked with the Portuguese fingerprint.

I dare to think that such success would not have been possible were it not for our facility for interlocution and the special ties that link us to so many countries, in particular those whose official language is Portuguese, with whom we share such a great affinity.

Portuguese universality is certainly a privilege we have inherited but also an experience that we have learnt to cultivate and on which we can and should realistically project our future.

All these and other demonstrations make me ask whether we are not squandering some of the advantages this resource could bring us.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In a world such as the one we live in today, it is never too much to highlight the strategic value that our capital of sympathy, the receptivity we can rely on from so many peoples, regardless of each one’s political and religious beliefs and their respective degree of economic and social development, can represent for our international affirmation, for the future of our companies and for the economic and social well-being of our citizens.

The problems that confront all countries today, by their very planetary nature, call for greater international concertation and a constant search for consensus at every level.

Portugal has provided adequate proof that it has a natural aptitude to promote and facilitate negotiation and proximity between peoples, whether regionally or globally.

Without regional and global cooperation between States, it will not be possible to confront the growing challenges represented by the now-familiar economic, social and demographic asymmetries, or market deregulation, namely in fuel and food products.

Whilst not having the means that others have at their disposal it would nevertheless be a serious fault, in a highly competitive world such as ours, to neglect or scorn those means that we actually have and that everyone recognises.

It is important, therefore, to invest in our diplomatic and consular network, endowing it with capacities to enable it fully to respond to our expectations, as an essential asset for the promotion and defence of our political, economic and cultural interests, in supporting our companies and our citizens, namely the Portuguese and Luso-descendant communities.

We must benefit from the influence, support the political insertion and valorise the enterprising capacity of our five million Portuguese compatriots who live outside the country.

We must continue to support our companies’ internationalisation, not only in Portugal, but also in the countries they have chosen as their destination, whilst at the same time reinforce our capacity to attract foreign investments.

We must imperatively pursue the inclusion of our Universities and research centres in the international networks where knowledge and technology are produced today.

We must reinforce and tighten even further the privileged relations linking us to the other Portuguese-speaking countries, taking advantage not only of the well-known ties of friendship but also of our coinciding interests and perspectives concerning many aspects of international politics.

The promotion of the Portuguese language is, indeed, the central theme of the forthcoming summit of the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries, which will be held in Lisbon next month. It is important to define joint strategies there.

More than 200 million people speak Portuguese almost everywhere in the world and they would suffice to justify a concerted action by the eight Portuguese-speaking States, with a view to valorising that heritage of our common language within the international framework. Furthermore, in the globalised world in which we live, the international affirmation of a language contributes decisively to defend the interests and values of those who speak it.

It is also essential for Portugal to deepen its bilateral relations with each of the Portuguese-speaking States. In my recent visits to Brazil and Mozambique I was able, once again, to witness the will and the interest those countries demonstrate to reinforce existing partnerships at political, economic or cultural level.

The fact that we can understand each other in the same language and share a history that was common for some centuries is not irrelevant.
Nor would it make sense for the Portuguese to disregard that fact, when it is everywhere underlined with great admiration and applause.

Friendships count in international politics.

However, relations between States are not built or even consolidated exclusively on the basis of friendship. It can make them easier but does not substitute the work required to identify cooperation opportunities and the committed, persistent effort demanded by that cooperation.

Fellow citizens,

I am not unaware – and have said this more than once – that the value attributed internationally to Portuguese universality depends largely on the credit of our internal politics.

A country where institutions are not reliable; a country that does not grow and does not innovate, creating wealth and opportunities for all; a country lacking a school that produces elites capable of joining the knowledge society and dealing with advanced technologies, a country that does not trust in its own future, however proud it may be of its past, will find it hard to aspire to a relevant intervention on the external front.

We must start by being demanding and firm with ourselves, if we wish the enormous legacy we inherited, in which we take justifiable pride, to become a real instrument at the service of the progress and prosperity of our people.

As we know, this year we are commemorating the centenary of the birth of Father António Vieira.

There are few people better than him at incarnating Portuguese universality.
A missionary and a politician, faithful to universal values and a genuine patriot, a visionary thinker and a skilful diplomat, a man of action and a sublime preacher, Vieira is the inescapable proof that it is possible to think and create a greater Portugal.

No-one more than him can inspire us to acquire a policy of vast horizons, a policy that really takes advantage of all we have been over the ages.

In his History of the Future, Vieira called for “the large and rare things that we must see in that new discovery”. So, I hope that we, the Portuguese of today, can honour his memory and believe, as he did, in that History of the Future, the history we wish for our children.