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Honourable Speaker of Parliament
Honourable Prime Minister 
Honourable President of the Supreme Court of Justice
Honourable President of the Constitutional Court
Honourable Members of the Government
Honourable Bishop of Setúbal
Honourable Ambassadors
Honourable Mayor of Setúbal
Honourable President of the Organizing Committee of the Commemorations
Ladies and Gentlemen
People of Portugal,


We commemorate today the National Day of Portugal, of Camões and of the Portuguese Communities.

In this festive day, we celebrate our collective identity, the identity of a nation that sees itself in the greatest of its poets and that is proud of its history.

We also celebrate our status as a people who did not conform to the scarcity of its territory, and that, from early on, travelled to other regions and established contacts worldwide.

In this National Day of Portugal, I salute all Portuguese, particularly those that, out of need or by option, reside and work far away, but do not forget the land that witnessed their birth and to which they continue linked by strong bonds of affection.

I salute, very specially, the Portuguese military forces who at this moment are serving on missions in foreign parts, and whose actions in defence of peace and security has been welcomed by the local peoples and justly received international recognition.

From here, from Setúbal, the city which this year is hosting the celebrations of June 10, I address to all my warmest greetings, certain that we, all of us together, will be able to build and leave to coming generations a more prosperous and fairer Portugal.

Throughout their history, both here and in other locations in national territory and abroad, the Portuguese have known how to overcome the various crises which they have faced in their paths for more than eight centuries. In spite of the sometimes difficult conditions and also, of the disasters which we have been through, there is no reason why we should not believe in our potential as a Nation.

It is true that the past, however glorious, is not an insurance policy against all risks. In a moment such as this, where the realities and the challenges with which we are faced are in an accelerated change, there would be no sense in evoking our past history, as if it contained the solution to all of our problems.

June 10 cannot, for this reason, be just a mere ritual, alien to all the difficulties we are facing ahead, here and now, and which reach, with more or less intensity, many of our fellow citizens.

History, however, can and must be a source of inspiration and confidence. If we arrived at where we are and were so often equal to the challenges, it is because we had the possibility and the obligation to proceed and face the adversities, correcting the mistakes we may eventually have committed.

What we cannot do is accept the defeatist attitude that for more than a century has been so frequent amongst us. Giving up has never been a solution. Neither individually nor collectively.
We must face the present without sterile longings, but also without inferiority complexes, which would be useless and unjustified.

A country cannot be renewed if it does not possess a positive image of itself. We must be critical and intransigent so that we are not taken in by ease of availability. But we also have to know if we are capable. We must trust our capabilities.

Portugal can be proud of having known, in the past, how to take advantage of the geographic conditions to survive as a people and to approach other peoples.

The ocean which borders it was also used as a portal, through which we sailed and went in search of the chances that we had never had, in this small rectangle, in this “arena fronting the Atlantic” as it was named by Oliveira Martins.

The cycle of the empire has now been definitely closed. But the labours of the Portuguese have not disappeared, nor were they lost in time.

Far from just a nostalgic souvenir, these labours continue alive, whether in each of the places where we founded communities, whether in the global network of contacts in which the planet is now transformed.

The heritage that endures in the various centres in which the Portuguese Diaspora settled is extremely valuable. Materially and, above all, spiritually.

The language we speak was the first, in modern times, to cross the oceans and to link a whole diversity of cultures. Even today, it is still shared by eight independent States, not counting the many emigrant communities that continue to express themselves and communicate in it.

In several continents, there are innumerable churches, civic buildings, fortresses and other types of monuments built by the Portuguese, some of which are, fortunately, under restoration.

In the beginning of this year, during the State Visit to India, I had the opportunity to cherish the heritage we left there, particularly in Goa. I was greatly impressed by the way the testimony of our presence in those places still exists in so many monuments, in so many aspects of local culture and, yet more important, in the memory of the people.

More or less everywhere, the Portuguese imprints are visible in various cultural performances, as well as in artistic or commonly used products, which are nowadays included in the heritage of many of the peoples with whom we came into contact.

A few of these testimonies have been collected and will be shown in Washington, in an exhibition which the American organizers have named «Embracing the world» and which I will have the honour to open on June 20 next.

The Portuguese led an adventure which launched the pillars of the world such as it is nowadays. We have to live up to this responsibility and again find our place in this global, interdependent and competitive world, in whose origin we had a determining role.

Portugal was the first country that led Europe to meet with other peoples, thus bringing into being the universality which is the tone of European values.

The Portuguese travelled all over Africa and the Indies, Brazil and the Far East, and were for many years the Europe outside of Europe, the visible face of the European civilization in the four corners of the world.

Europe is, naturally, our geographical, political and cultural space. In the chart imagined by Fernando Pessoa, in his well known poems, Europe gazes at the West and «the face with which it gazes is Portugal».

Other than this, Portugal is nowadays firmly anchored in the process of European construction. In the last twenty years, we took part in the deepening of integration and followed the developments which led the Common Market to the Economic and Monetary Union.
We have, certainly, much benefited from the adhesion. But we have also greatly contributed, even by the singleness of our historic experience which was, in the past, and will so continue, in the future, an added value for Europe. 

Portugal will assume for the third time, in the next half year, the presidency of the Council of the European Union. This is a great and demanding responsibility, which forces a common mustering of efforts from government, diplomats and professional people. 

At the crossroads in which Europe is currently placed, Portugal will be challenged to promote the convergence of the twenty seven Member States over many complex issues, such as the institutional reform and the strengthening of bonds with other regions of the world, of which I single out Africa, and countries such as Brazil, India and China.

I well know that results do not depend only on the presidency. Results depend essentially from the will of the Member States. What is demanded, however, is that the presidency be exercised with dignity, rigour and competence. This is the sole way that the prestige of the Country will be strengthened, as I trust will happen once again.

We have good reasons to believe that Portugal may have a relevant role, not only in the scope of the European Union, but also within the international community.

Our traditional openness to the world, strengthened by the presence, in many countries, of Portuguese communities recognized for their dynamism, provides us with a role and a responsibility which are irreplaceable, especially in this moment when dialogue amongst peoples is so necessary for peace and prosperity.

Our geographical proximity to the Atlantic, which was responsible for the feats of the discoveries, is today, perhaps more than ever, a potential which we have not been able to exploit as we should have done. It was because we knew the sea as nobody else that we were able, in the past, to go as far as we did.

There are a number of historical, economic, environmental and scientific factors for Portugal to once again find in the sea, one of its more important angles of assertion and development.

We have one of the largest Exclusive Economic Zones in the whole of Europe, an oceanic heritage which is unique and very relevant geological, mineral, biotechnical and energy resources. But the truth is that not only the heritage we have linked to the sea is under developed, but that the links of the Portuguese with the sea have become somewhat estranged.

Both in the past as in recent years, various surveys have been undertaken concerning Portuguese investment in the sea. In various occasions, examination was carried out on the facets and virtues of what many call the «sea cluster».

But it is not enough just to merely stress our potential, or the rhetoric of the virtues of the investment in the sea. It is necessary that we turn to action, that we take advantage of the opportunities generated by the economy of the sea and face, with determination, the threats impending on it, such as pollution, climatic change and lack of planning of the coastal areas.

I intend to dedicate my next Campaign of the Route to Science to the Sciences and Technologies of the Sea. I am sure I shall be able to show good examples of research, development and innovation in this area.

People of Portugal,

I have tried, since I assumed the Presidency of the Republic, to encourage agreement not only between the sovereign institutions, as well as between the political and social bodies, in order that, notwithstanding natural differences of opinion, we may all be able to join forces to re-launch the Country on the path to progress, development and social justice.

In my speeches and, specifically, in the Routes to Inclusiveness and to Science, I have voiced against inertness and appealed to ambition and to work.

Other than that, I proposed to the Portuguese a civic commitment for inclusiveness, to lessen the great social disparities which we encounter daily.

Think of the aged, so many of them living alone, of the women and children victims of domestic violence, of the immigrants, of the long term unemployed and of the handicapped.

It is of course not realistic to ask the State to resolve everything. We must demand from society, to all and from each one of us, to give them an opportunity, a little more regard and affection, to allow them the dignity that they deserve.

For this reason I appealed to voluntary work, to welfare organizations, to civic associations, to entrepreneurs, to local authorities and to the common citizen, to muster and organize in support of this cause.

The Portuguese are an equitable people. The many welfare institutions, the networks and local committees for social activities, the thousands of voluntary workers that are active with the less favoured are the best proof that we are not indifferent to the future of those amongst us who live in difficulty.

I believe that this spirit of equitable responsibility will be maintained. I believe that new initiatives, new enterprises and new citizens will join this cause for social inclusiveness.

And, precisely because I believe, I will not give up.

I have often repeated that I will not give up to passiveness in the face of the persistent indicators of our backwardness in relation to our European partners.

I will not give up on the low levels of economic growth, on the worrying rate of school abandonment, on the poverty and social exclusion of so many families, on the scarce dimension of the scientific and technological components of our productive fabric.

I will not give up on the signs of degradation of the environment and of the cultural heritage with which we are faced in so many places and townships, which we should rather preserve and promote, as the heritage we should enjoy, and, in turn, leave to our children and grandchildren.

The preservation of the space in which we live, as well as the heritage that was left us, are two decisive constituents for the strengthening of our common identity.

We must not abandon, or lose sight of what we were, if we want to live up to our responsibilities, whether individual or collective, in order that Portugal continues to have a marked presence in the Commonwealth of Nations.

As I had the opportunity to state in my New Year’s address, “to be amongst the best, we must have the ambition to establish more demanding targets, to which all are committed and responsible”. I repeat “all”. It is everybody’s task.

In this National Day of Portugal, of Camões and of the Portuguese Communities, we must look at the past as a proof that we can do more and better in the future.

I know that we can. I know that we can conquer today’s difficulties. I know that we can leave to tomorrows’ Portuguese a Portugal worthy of its history.

Thank you