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Honourable Mayor of Ponta Delgada
Honourable Speaker of the Municipal Assembly
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I wish, first of all, to thank the Mayor of Ponta Delgada, for the invitation I received to take part in this ceremony.

I equally want to thank the Municipality for its decision in awarding me the Gold Key to the City. It is decidedly a sign of distinction for the President of the Republic who, as such, visits this Autonomous Region for the first time. On receiving this distinction I warmly greet the people of Ponta Delgada and of the Island of São Miguel.

Thanks to the investments carried out and to its people’s efforts, it must go on record that Ponta Delgada has been greatly modernized.

There is evidence all over of the development and progress which have caused Ponta Delgada to become a city distinguished by the richness of its cultural heritage, by the diversity of what it offers as a tourist destination, and by the quality of its public equipment.

Our satisfaction for the progress of Ponta Delgada becomes even greater when we realize that the modernization of the Municipality and the development of the Island of São Miguel have not affected the aspects of one of the more enchanting and fascinating locations in Portugal, with landscapes of breathtaking beauty, convergence of land and sea.

I thus greatly appreciate and feel very honoured by having been awarded this distinction and that I find myself in the City Hall of the municipality of Ponta Delgada, a city since 1546 by royal decree of King John III.

Such ancient history and illustrious genealogy are fragments which challenge and call on the responsibility of all who arrive here. We are required to meditate on the presence of the Azores in our History for many centuries.

The Atlantic vocation of Portugal has always been singularly focused here. The Azores were, and are, a platform between continents, a bridge linking two worlds, a privileged area for the achievement of Atlantic Europeanism. This is a land of confluence and encounters.

Of the encounter between Europe and the New World, that the Azorean Diaspora reflects so well. But also of the encounter between Continental Portugal and its insular regions which, due to their geographical situation, have specificities that must be respected. And must be respected for two reasons: firstly, because they relate to the legitimate heartbeat and feelings of the people of this archipelago; and, secondly, because such specificities, contrary to what is at times assumed, are in themselves an enrichment of the whole nation.

It is this contribution to Portugal’s diversity that I wish, on this occasion, to emphasize and praise. The Azorean way of life, specific to these islanders, a special trait of the culture and profile of the people of this archipelago, is a characteristic which we must preserve as an integral part of our common heritage and of our past of many centuries.

It is not easy to describe the personality of the Azores and of its people. The archipelago aggregates in its midst a number of islands, of which each one has peculiar and unmistakable traits in belonging to the Atlantic and in its insularity.

The respect for the identity of the Azores Autonomous Region and of the various islands which are part of it is a task which is not exempt from difficulties or pressures. But it is also a trait of the Azorean personality to know how to overcome the problems with determination and intelligence.

The poets and the literary people are most probably those that can better capture the profound feeling of the Azorean soul.

I recall the phrase of Vitorino Nemésio, when he said «made more of sea than of land». The sea, a continuous and ever present horizon of these islands, is probably the feature that best characterizes the Azorean people. These are a people that were «born from the sea/their blood was born of salt», as quoted by João de Melo.

From this city of Ponta Delgada, which is sea and land, which is blood and salt, from this fascinating island of São Miguel, I appeal to all Azoreans, public authorities and citizens, as well as to the civil society institutions, to rediscover the strategic value of the oceans.

Thank you very much.