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

Honourable President of the Casa de Mateus Foundation,
Honourable Members of the Jury,
Honourable President of Caixa Geral de Depósitos,
Honourable Director-General of the Book and Libraries,
Distinguished Prize Winner,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

The award of the Dom Dinis Prize to poet Manuel Alegre has a very particular significance, which I am pleased to register here.

We have just heard the words of the representative of the jury concerning the quality of the rewarded book.

We all know how much and for how long the works of the poet have been appreciated and, above all, the success these have had with so many readers, practically since his first poems made an appearance.

I would also like to underline the happy coincidence of a poet, who is also a politician, receiving a prize with the name of somebody who, apart from being a politician, was equally a notable lyric poet: King D. Dinis.

The works of Manuel Alegre are undoubtedly those that are more readily identifiable with our history and with some of the feelings which, throughout the centuries, have been deeply rooted in our senses and in our way of life.

Some of his verses express what is essential in what we were and still are now, what made of us a people who cling to their native land but, at the same time, are capable of sailing to far off destinations.

«The sea can be seen from my language», said Vergílio Ferreira. In fact, it was on the sea that some of the more admirable pages of Portuguese history were written. It is thus not surprising that the sea continues to be present and to inspire, as already happened in other works of Manuel Alegre, the pages of this latter book of his, significantly named Twelve Caravels.

In some way or another, the sea is a part of our identity and has always been a source, not just of literary and artistic inspiration, but also of national wealth. Just as Manuel Alegre writes:

«We are a small and poor country that
Only has the sea
Much past and much history and less and less
Memory».

We truly have a notable past, a past of which we can be proud and about which we must not be nostalgic, as I have often had the occasion to assert.

I do not believe, however – I hope Manuel Alegre will excuse me – that the memory of that past is at risk. On the contrary, I am firmly convinced that the memory of what we were will not be wiped out, at least while there are poets to write and recite it, in verses that the people admire and really feel as their own.

Poets such as Camões, Almeida Garrett, Fernando Pessoa and Manuel Alegre himself, to whom Portugal has always been, more than a destiny, a real cause, no matter how great were the misfortunes that each one of them, in his turn, could observe and mourn in their common Fatherland.

I wish, for this reason, to vibrantly congratulate Manuel Alegre for this prize and for the much his work has achieved on behalf of Portuguese language and culture.

His readers, as well as all those of us that believe in the values of freedom and citizenship, respect the poet and the citizen determined in the building of a Portugal faithful to its History.

I wish, finally, to congratulate the Casa de Mateus Foundation, represented by its President, Eng. Fernando de Albuquerque, for the success of the D. Dinis prize and for all it has been achieving on behalf of Portuguese culture.

Throughout the last few decades, Casa de Mateus has been a good example on how the loyalty to historic heritage can be combined together with dynamism in the dissemination of the arts.

Let us hope that examples such as this prevail and multiply, both regionally and nationally.