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

We are celebrating today the 25th April, a joyful occasion, in which Portugal commemorates freedom and democracy as well as development and social justice.

Exactly forty years ago, on 25 April 1975, the Portuguese took part in the first really free elections in the whole of our History.

When choosing the Members of Parliament for the Constitutional Assembly, in that which was the most representative electoral act in the history of our democracy, the Portuguese demonstrated they sided with freedom and against all types of authoritarianism.

The Members of Parliament, whom I warmly greet today and to whom I am grateful for the excellence of institutional cooperation, can be proud of being the successors of the constituting members elected in 1975.

The 25th April has several heroes, but the greatest of all are the people of Portugal.

We must celebrate April with a feeling for the future, in order that the new generations are made aware that freedom and democracy are values which are daily built and renewed.

At a time when, in several places in the World, including Europe, we can view rising signs of intolerance and threats to freedom, in an era when quite a few are tempted by radical extremism, we must renew our commitment towards a freer and fairer society.

The Portuguese adopt the values of freedom and tolerance, firmly refuse the recourse to violence and conflict as means for political action. We are a people of peace and dialogue. We live together in harmony with all other peoples.

When commemorating the 25th April in the House of Parliament, in a year when the current legislature ends and in which another will begin, we must give our thoughts to Portugal’s future, seriously and serenely reflecting on the great challenges that the Country will have to face.

Portugal successfully completed a Programme of Economic and Financial Aid which, at a time of national emergency, it was obliged to establish with the international institutions which loaned us the indispensable funds to finance the State and the economy.

We are traversing a new stage in our national life: in spite of still having a long way in front of us, the economy already shows signs of growth and job creation, external accounts are balanced and the exit of the situation of an excessive deficit can be foreseen.

Our Country is nowadays respected and accredited in the international stage, a Country which institutions and investors can trust.

However, decisive challenges continue concerning our future and the control of public expenditure and State indebtedness, financing of companies, competitiveness and fiscal fairness, to which we must associate the support for productive investment and an agenda to cover economic growth and job creation.

If politicians do not have the clear conscience that they must muster the Portuguese to face these challenges, the sacrifices we went through, which, in many cases, created dramatic situations, some of which continue extant today, will have been of little worth.

Members of Parliament,

To give thought to Portugal’s future means, before anything else, to diagnose our basic issues and point out the lines that must be followed by the diverse political factions.

The Country is facing medium and long term challenges that will not be finalized in the temporal horizon of one legislature. But to build a fairer and developed Portugal for the coming generations, it is crucial that, in the time we have ahead, concrete measures are taken with the future in mind.

We are facing a very serious problem with the fall in birth-rate and aging of the people. Portugal is one of the World’s countries where fewer children are born, in relative terms. In addition to all the issues associated with low birth-rate, such as the sustainability of social security, the desertification of wide areas of the territory and the degradation of the principles of solidarity between generations, the fall in the number of births is a factor of impoverishment for the Country as a whole.

The aging of the people not only reduces the potential growth of the economy but also increases the pressure on the public accounts, through expenses with health and pensions.

Worse still, the fact that fewer than ever children are born means that, in the future, we will have fewer young entrepreneurs, fewer active and creative citizens, fewer qualified workers.

Apart from the promotion of a strategy to increase the birth-rate, to which I have often called attention during my mandates, it is essential to encourage the return of those who, as a result of the economic and financial crisis, decided to go abroad. In key areas for our future, the country viewed the exit of many of its young people, many of whom highly qualified. It is now, while the bonds that link them to Portugal are still fresh, that we must act and promote their return, creating conditions in order that their talent and their capabilities may bear fruit amongst us.

We must equally adopt a coherent strategy to capture talents and to integrate immigrant communities. Portugal is proud of being a tolerant and inclusive country, a fraternal and multicultural land, where citizens from all over the World may work and live harmoniously and peacefully. It is important to deepen the effort for the integration of foreign communities, to respect their diversity and to share the common values which we will never give up: freedom and democracy, justice and tolerance.

It happens, on the other hand, that many of the youths that remained in Portugal are unemployed. Others are only partially employed or have unstable jobs. They are forced to postpone their options, uncertain of what the future will bring. Portugal, which already faces a serious birth-rate problem, is thus laying to waste another fundamental asset, its youth.

The lack of interest of the new generations for civic and political activity is not surprising. All of us – politicians particularly – must very deeply reflect this phenomenon.

Only through a strategy turned towards qualified job creation will it be possible to increase young people’s confidence in the institutions. Many feel that their investment in educational training and professional qualification was totally in vain. While maintaining this situation, Portugal has a double loss: on the one hand, it loses what it has already invested in the education and qualification of its young people; on the other hand, it lays to waste the contribution that these youths, with their talent and initiative, may provide to help the Country to return to a sustainable path of economic growth and wealth creation.

The civic mustering of youngsters – and citizens in general – also implies that the institutions and their protagonists become credible. After four decades of democracy, politicians should understand, once and for all, that the need for interparty agreements is intrinsic to our political system and that the Portuguese are not interested in viewing interventions that encourage conflict and discord and that place momentary party interests above the supreme national interest.

The Portuguese are tired of political conflict concerning accessory and artificial issues, when a union of efforts should exist in the opening up of future prospects for the new generations, in the fight against unemployment and poverty, in the improvement of fairness and distribution of income, in support for the aged.

Members of Parliament,

In a context of dignifying institutions, a firm attitude in the fight against corruption, possible the greatest enemy of democratic societies, is immediately imperative.

Corruption has extremely grievous effects in the relationship between citizens and the State, decreasing trust in the institutions and creating, in particular, the false idea that the majority of politicians or highly placed officers of the administration do not carry out their duties transparently, at the exclusive service of the community. It is from this false perception that populism is fed and the door is opened to demagogy.

Additionally, corruption places in question one of the essential components of collective living, the cohesion of the social fabric.

Portugal has important assets, especially in comparison with many member countries of the European Union. One of these assets is, precisely, social cohesion. Thanks to it, we were able to go through a period of heavy sacrifices without radicalisms or dramatic disruptions, as happened in some Southern European countries.

In order to maintain social cohesion, it is essential that everybody is driven to combat corruption. In a Republic with equal citizens, nobody is above the law.

In this context, a challenge we have to face is the promotion of a policy of Justice focused on the defence of the collective interest and of individual rights. Only through credible, swift and effective Justice can Portugal assert itself as a State with a consolidated Rule of Law, as a meritocratic society of free and equal citizens. Reforms in our juridical system have been approved that will only fully result if these actively engage the agents of the judicial edifice, the magistrates that are closely connected with the reality of the courts. I am certain that this is a field where it is possible to find interparty consensus capable to provide stability to the already introduced basic reforms and to those that meanwhile will be presented.

It is well known that delays in the justice system, apart from prejudicing citizen’s legitimate rights and expectations, are one of the determining factors of lower attractiveness for investment, affecting the dynamism and competitiveness of our economy.

Also in the area of Public Administration, in spite of technological modernization and in the advance of the provision of digital services, factors still exist that hamper attraction for investment and company initiative. Unfortunately, the discussion over State reform has been placed in a field of ideological combat, in which arguments are exchanged that little contribute towards what we all wish: an independent and impartial Administration, near to the citizens, sized in accordance with the efficient rendering of public goods and services, with qualified staff and officers exclusively chosen due to their merit.

The Public Administration must be competitive in the labour market, in order to recruit, motivate and maintain in its staffing the human resources that are apt to perform the highly responsible duties demanded from them.

The Portuguese recognize in the Social State the model that brought them relevant benefits in areas such as Health and Education, Social Security and Culture. The Social State is one of the greatest occurrences of our democracy. It is an area where discussion and consensus over its future is imperative. It is not a question of decreasing the social protection of the citizens that need it, but that of guaranteeing the system’s sustainability over an enlarged temporal horizon and to increase the efficiency, the fairness and the quality of the services rendered.

In fair measure, the quality of democracy depends upon the quality of the public services rendered to the citizens. The way in which these perceive and assess the actions of the governing officers, of the politicians, of the political parties, depends greatly upon the daily relationship they maintain with the Public Administration. In this sense, the improvement of the State’s efficiency also contributes towards the quality of the democracy and for the prestige of the political classes.

Members of Parliament,

After forty years of democracy what we have attained is notable. Not only have we built a democratic and free country, respected in the international stage, but we also construed a more inclusive society with greater solidarity.

But we are not satisfied. We are ambitious, we want a better future.

We are ambitious for a fairer Portugal, a more dynamic and competitive economy, an education of excellence and a sustainable National Health Service with great quality.

In four decades of democracy, the citizens witnessed the quality of and access to education and health care significantly improved. Portugal currently has scientists and researchers that are likened to the best. Technological progress in the detection and treatment of sickness are at the level of those in the more developed countries. The success in the combat against infant mortality is a worldwide reference.

Excellence in education, the development of skills throughout life and the sustainability of the National Health Service remain, however, facing great challenges that must be a prime consideration for Parliament in the next legislature.

The future of the Portuguese National Health Service cannot be envisaged only in its financial dimension. Investment in the people’s health is a source of wealth creation that cannot go to waste. It is, above all, an imperative of justice and of safeguarding human dignity.

The report of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation “A Future for Health” supplies an informed and objective basis for the establishment of a social and political pact for the following decade that the sector demands.

Members of Parliament,

A constant topic in my mandates, a national strategy for the sea, has definitely entered the political agenda.

I stress, on this occasion, the large consensus reached in this Parliament over the approval of the Basic Law on the Policy of Planning and Management of the National Maritime Area and the developments carried out in the sea port and fish production sectors, due to their contribution towards the increase in exports.

In spite of this advancement, there is great potential in the economy of the sea which is still to be exploited and an enormously relevant political challenge that must be faced in the next legislature: the adoption of a truly integrated governance of sea issues. The efficient pivoting of all sea issues must be assured, independently from the government tutelage from which it depends, in order to guarantee that the strategy defined for the sector is effectively carried out.

In another very important domain, the need is evident to guarantee the security of the people due to new transnational threats, to which we must respond through the assertion of our values and principles, but also with recourse to preventive and repressive means. Portugal is an open and tolerant society. To continue so, we must firmly reject extremisms and be intransigent with violence and terrorism.

An urgent challenge which is placed here is to guarantee the adequacy of the organization and operation of all the structures which make up our national security system to the demands that derive from these new dangers, which are not announced and ignore borders.

Even if within a clearly distinct level, violence does not manifest itself just through physical force and armament. We have witnessed, in public debate in Portugal, a level of discord and verbal aggressiveness that, very often, does not hesitate to overstep the controversy of opinions and veer towards personal insult and injury.

In a ripened democracy, informed debate and diversity of opinions are fundamental values. Values that, however, run the risk of becoming obscured and relegated to a secondary level if the trend is maintained to resort to sterile squabbles, calumny and slander as tools of political combat. There, of course, we are no longer in the field of divergent opinions but, on the contrary, in citizen’s views, the healthy diversity of ideas will be lost and public debate impoverished.

Verbal violence, amplified by the clatter of the media, removes the citizens from the life of the Republic, promotes lack of civic interest, and corrodes the trust of the Portuguese in their institutions. I thus appeal to the Members of Parliament, representatives of the people, in this legislature and in that which will be commenced towards the end of the current year, to contribute, through the strength of their example, to the raising of the public debate and to the quality of democracy in Portugal.

Only thus, through dialogue and consensus, will it be possible to achieve the indispensable compromise to guarantee political stability and the Country’s governability, and to face with success the challenges placed before us.

Only through compromise between the democratic forces was it possible to approve the Constitution of the Republic and materialize many of the April dreams.

Madam Speaker,
Members of Parliament,

Viewing the map of Europe, Portugal appears as a small and peripheral country. But, at times, appearances ae misleading. We are one of the countries with a greater level of social cohesion in the Union, we have privileged bonds of friendship with several peoples of the World, our language is spoken by millions of human beings. In addition to all this, we are the space where Europe opens out to the Atlantic. The sea enhances us, dignifies us, and places us in the centre of the planet.

In the map of the World – and not in that of the European continent – Portugal is no longer peripheral. On the contrary, it occupies a central location. In the era of globalization, in which geographies are continuously rebuilt supported by technology and new means of communication, it is the World map we should look at. There, viewing the whole World, Portugal is in the fulcrum of contemporaneity.

We were pioneers five hundred years ago, when we took advantage of our proximity to the ocean to discover new worlds.

We were pioneers forty years ago, when the April revolution started a wave of democratization that was spread to several countries in Europe: first, in the South; later, in the Eastern block.

We did not fear the unknown, either in the time of the Discoveries or on 25 April.

Today, as well, the Portuguese must not fear the time they are living in. We undoubtedly face great challenges. But History revealed that it was always in those times that we showed how strong and brave we are.

On 25 April we must celebrate hope.

It was the hope of a new era that gave animus and courage to the soldiers that overturned the dictatorship.

It is the hope of a better future that must join us all on behalf of Portugal and the Portuguese.

Thank you very much.