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Conference in the Champalimaud Foundation

Opening of conference “Portugal - April Routes: Democracy, Commitment and Development”

The President of the Republic opened, in Lisbon, the international conference “Portugal –April Routes: Democracy, Commitment and Development”, which launched a debate focused on the Spirit of Democracy, the Culture of Commitment and the Challenges of Development, and in which both national and foreign speakers took part.

Held in the Champalimaud Foundation, and after speeches by the Chairman of the hosting institution, Leonor Beleza, by the Commissioner of the Conferences of the Routes to the Future, João Lobo Antunes, and by President Cavaco Silva, the meeting began with and Opening Testimony, presented by the first President of the Republic democratically elected after April 25 1974, General António Ramalho Eanes.

In the first session of the conference, organized by the Presidency of the Republic, two Panels discussed the following topics – “Democracy: for a new citizenship”, and “Commitment: for a new political culture” – led, respectively, by the former European Commissioner António Vitorino and by the Coordinator of the Conferences of the Routes to the Future, David Justino.

Yasemin Soysal, from Essex University, in the United Kingdom, Marina Costa Lobo, from the Institute of Social Sciences ofr Lisbon University, Manuel Braga da Cruz, from the Portuguese Catholic University, and José Maria Magone, from the Berlin School of Economics and Law, in Germany, were the main speakers in the first session.

Click here to view the opening speech of President Cavaco Silva