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In the terms of the law approved in Parliament, today is not a national holiday. Nonetheless, however, we should celebrate the anniversary of the 5th October 1910 revolution.

We do so in the belief that this date is a moment for republican values to be reencountered, as well as the principles that, more than one hundred years ago, led to the foundation of the State in which we live today: the Republic of Portugal, independent and sovereign.

The dream of those who led the 1910 revolution is still alive, in those circumstances that were more profound and enduring: the ideals of ethics and good citizenship, the triumph of equal opportunities, the valuing of merit and work as opposed to the prerogatives of birth or of privileges reserved for just a few.

In our days, just as one hundred years ago, the republican principle currently remains whereby the exercise of power must be exclusively placed at the service of the people, and never for the benefit of private interests, but on behalf of the whole of the social community.

In a Republic there are no first or second class citizens. In a Republic the law of full inclusion is in force: no one can be deprived of his rights of citizenship, whether political or economic and social. Active workers or pensioners, young or aged, men or women, employed or unemployed, all are citizens in their full rights – and must be dealt with as such, in the respect for the principles of equality and of human dignity comprised in our Fundamental Law.

On another hand, since we are all citizens with equal rights, no one is above the law or of the patriotic bounds of citizenship. No one may be exempt from the duty to contribute towards the common good, above all in times when all of us, with no exception, are called upon to endure heavy deprivations, on behalf of a better future for Portugal and for the coming generations.

For this reason precisely, republican values must be instilled in the Portuguese and materialized in their day-to-day lives, with greater drive and greater productivity, with increased care in the education of their children, with a deeper civic sense in their participation in democratic life.

It is essential that citizens have a strong sense of belonging to the Res Publica. Portugal means all of us.

It is imperative that we maintain the cohesion of our Republic, as well as the trust of the Portuguese in its institutions.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In a Republic nobody is above the law or the duties of citizenship. Thence the need not to lower our arms in the defence of the ethics of republicanism and of the values of rectitude, inhibiting and combating corruption or less transparent situations of relationship between public powers and private interests.

Equally, however, in a Republic nobody has the monopoly of ethics, nobody can ascribe himself as the owner of public morals. In crisis environments, there is always someone who intends to promote and take advantage of sensibilities that are contrary to those of the institutions, irresponsibly contributing to the deepening of the distancing and the lack of interest of citizens over the collective life of a Republic in which we all belong.

It is essential that we set up the bases of a citizenry that is more enlightened and better informed. In this context, it is not just the governing bodies that have a special duty of information towards the citizens, but equally the civil society and the media must be aware of their responsibilities.

The school is the training area for republican citizenship. It is at school that the republican ideal of success due to merit and work is materialized from the very start.

Demand and strictness in teaching are, in their essence, deeply republican values. Easiness in the assessment of students and teachers favour privilege and, in effect, end up by promoting inequality.

It is in a context of demand that merit and talent are distinguished, that effort and drive in improved learning are rewarded. Defending the quality of education, the search for excellence and the recognition of the irreplaceable role of teachers correspond to the essential principles of a more enlightened civic status, better informed, more mature.

In a Republic, the school is the most relevant instrument of social mobility. It is through knowledge and cognition, objectively assessed, that the trend to perpetuate inequalities based on each one’s social origins may be combated. If teaching misses the criteria of demand and strictness, the first to be penalized will be the students with lower resources, those that only through education and merit may progress in their school and, later, in their professional activity.

However, knowledge and cognition cannot be considered solely as a means of social promotion or as a factor of employability. If scholarly merit unarguably promotes professional success, its importance goes far further than a merely instrumental vision of cognition, science and culture.

Verily, culture has an intrinsic value as a means of each one’s spiritual enrichment. Thus, particularly, the importance of valuing our History, of safeguarding the heritage that is our legacy from the past, of complying with a memorial duty towards the generations that preceded us.

In a democracy, the collective memory, exactly because it is collective, is everyone’s inheritance. In a Republic, History is no one’s monopoly. History is an open narrative, to which all are called upon to learn and become cognizant.

On behalf of a Republic lived in democracy and freedom, we have to make known the past, without this implying the sustaining of official versions of History or past nationalisms, such as those of authoritarian regimes which we removed in April 1974.

We will celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the 25th April next year. Jointly with the 5th October, the April revolution is one of the memorial sites of our democracy, which we must preserve and transmit to future generations.

We must have in mind that, such as none of us were alive on 5 October 1910, thousands upon thousands of Portuguese were born after 1974. Their relationship with the 25th April resembles the remote perception that many of us have of the 5th October.

It is thus essential to revive the message of 1974, in that which it has in common with the message of 1910: the ambition for a Portugal with greater freedom and democracy, fairer and more developed.

Drawing forth that hope of freedom and justice, I greet all the Portuguese on the 5th October 2013.

Thank you.