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

Honourable Minister for Internal Affairs,
Honourable Mayor of Pombal,
Honourable Chairman of the Conference of the League of Portuguese Firemen,
Honourable Executive Chairman of the League of Portuguese Firemen,
Honourable Conference Members,

I have underlined, on various occasions, the importance of voluntary work in Portuguese society. This is because I recognize in organized voluntary work a factor of social innovation and because I consider it as possessing an inimitable role for the consolidation, in Portugal, of a fairer society.

I feel that my appeal has not been ignored. It is possible to ascertain a growing dedication of the Portuguese towards voluntary work and, better still, towards voluntary work addressed to social solidarity.

There are many thousands of people, of differing ages and social standing who, in multiple occasions and activities, give a part of their time to serving others and contribute, without any costs but with competence, to alleviate the anguish, the suffering and the frailty of their fellow citizens.

This is a very positive indicator, which justifies a renewed trust in the values of Portuguese society and in the characteristic traits of the Portuguese.

It means that many of us see in voluntary work an appeal of conscience and a specially effective means to innovate structural models of social intervention, to promote an inclusive society and fight against situations of social exclusion, to contribute towards the dignity, the comfort, the culture and the happiness of the weakest and needful, and to ensure the support, the protection and the succour of people and goods in case of need.

It is from this essence of the Portuguese that accrues much of the strength of Portugal, a strength that made us build what we built and arrive in the 21st century as a sovereign nation, a strength that allows us to withstand adversity and fight for a more balanced development, for the building of a society which we crave for our offspring.

Voluntary work, in the differing institutional models in which it materializes – or as an attitude of each one’s life – contributes decisively towards, in the society to which we belong, greater justice and greater fondness for decisions that follow principles of equity, so that inequalities are assuaged and opportunities widened, and also to the existence of a greater sense of security in the face of adversity.

The holders of offices in sovereign bodies, and particularly, the political representatives should, for this reason, proactively value, encourage and support voluntary work, in the various sectors where it is manifest and materializes.

Even then, whoever exercises sovereign power is indebted to the meaning of voluntary work – and to those who materially carry it out – by much more than its value, stimulus and support.

A posture genuinely imbued with voluntary spirit is demanded from those who exercise public office, whether in the effective assumption of the objective of a fair and inclusive, secure and free society, or through the example and the responsibility which must be shown in the exercise of public office.

An “example” of who speaks the truth and has altruistic and solidary merit. “Responsibility” for a collective sustainable future, supported by strategic thinking and inspired leadership.

Honourable Conference Members,

It is not due to mere protocol that I am presiding over this closing ceremony of the fortieth Conference of the League of Portuguese Firemen.

And it is also not due to formal issues that I accepted the League’s invitation, in this year of 2008, to preside at the Honourable Committee of the National Year of Voluntary Firemen.

I am here with you today closing the proceedings of this Conference since, amongst all voluntary work, the spirit and the mission of firemen and the model of their operational structures deserve special recognition.

It is a very remarkable and effective way of congregating individual devotion at the service of the community.

It is the duty of the President of the Republic not only to contribute towards the social prestige of firemen but also to provide them, personally, with a word of encouragement and thanks, thus corresponding, anyway, to the general feelings of the Portuguese. .

Before anything else, I want to pay a heartfelt tribute to all those firemen that, in the course of their mission of protection and succour, lost their lives or were irremediably injured.

In their permanent mission to help, in the prevention of risks and in the protection and succour in the face of adversity, firemen are a guarantee for the security of people and goods and one of the pillars of the ethical dimension of our society

The values of voluntary work, personalized in each Portuguese fireman, and their example of effort, altruism, courage, solidarity, perseverance and the building of a healthy and confident esprit de corps, constitute a true collective heritage of humanity and moral nobility.

I publicly emphasize the importance of this heritage and challenge firemen to assume it as something which they should, in a spirit of mission, bequeath to the younger generations.

This challenge to transfer a testimony of values achieves special opportunity at a moment when the professional component of civil protection is being strengthened amongst us, since it seems to me essential that, even so, its voluntary component should not be weakened.

I have closely followed the reality of our firemen. I have kept close contact with the Portuguese Firemen’s League and with the much younger Portuguese Association of Voluntary Firemen, which I take the opportunity to salute, as I do to the National Association of Professional Firemen.

The contacts of the Presidency of the Republic with many Humanitarian Associations of Voluntary Firemen and other bodies heading firemen’s corps are quite frequent. I have kept pace with the preparation of their operations, particularly those relating to forest fires.

At seventy eight years of age, it is the League of Portuguese Firemen that statutorily congregates the bodies that head the firemen’s corps and the respective district and regional federations, thus embodying voluntary and professional firemen and the private firemen’s corps.

All 436 Humanitarian Associations of Voluntary Firemen are associates of the League. And it is important to understand the universe which we commenting: these Associations bring together, bound with associative ties, more than one million two hundred thousand Portuguese.

Allow me to specially congratulate the Humanitarian Association of Lisbon Voluntary Firemen, the first to be instituted in Portugal, in 1868, and that on the 21st of this month solemnly commemorated its one hundred and fortieth anniversary.

I congratulate it jointly with the Lisbon Regiment of Sapper Firemen, both discerningly invested a short while ago with the title of Honorary Associate Member of the League of Portuguese Firemen.

All the Humanitarian Associations of Voluntary Firemen have a municipal basis, thus associating with the auspicious Portuguese municipal tradition, and have an unique experience in relations of proximity. Jointly, these Humanitarian Associations constitute a network with enormous potential.

With links between them, with the municipalities, with other non-concentrated State bodies and even with private and social solidarity organizations, they can develop operational synergies and new services and missions of great collective usefulness, in addition to the role that their firemen’s corps already carry out as civil protection operators.

These synergies are possible in the areas of social support, of culture, of education and training, of sports, of the organization of collective interests, which will contribute to alleviate situations of poverty and exclusion which persist in the Portugal of the 21st century, and to prepare the Country to face with greater confidence the challenges of the knowledge society.

I ask the Officers of the Humanitarian Associations not to throw this potential to waste and that they organize themselves to follow up proposals, to be placed before central and local Administrations, as well as to private and social sector bodies, towards achieving an integral and effective use of the Humanitarian Associations of Voluntary Firemen.

With realism, perseverance and a constructive spirit, I am certain that we will be able to witness very positive developments in this field.

Portuguese Firemen,
President of the League of Portuguese Firemen,

The League of Portuguese Firemen dedicated 2008 as the National Year of Voluntary Firemen, and twenty years have gone past since the coming into force, in 1987, of the first Fireman’s Social Charter.
I believe, as President of the Republic, that the moment has arrived, on behalf of the people of Portugal, to distinguish the services rendered by all the firemen of Portugal.

These are highly relevant services, which defend the values of civility, on behalf of the cause of dignifying the human being, of justice and of the promotion of freedom.

Since I cannot do so with each fireman, neither with each of the bodies to which firemen belong, I distinguish the firemen of my Country through the League of Portuguese Firemen, which I award with the grade of Honorary Member of the Order of Freedom.

Thank you very much.