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

We celebrate today the anniversary of the proclamation of the Republic.

We celebrate the Republic at a time when Portugal is going through one of the most difficult periods of its recent History.

We live times of crisis and uncertainty as to the future.

The Portuguese economy and the State greatly depend from external finance. We have reached a situation in which, in order to secure such financing, we were forced to request the aid of external bodies, with which we subscribed commitments that we have to honour and comply.

Portugal must conquer its financial autonomy relative to the exterior, but this objective has not yet been achieved.

Great sacrifices are being asked from the Portuguese, at the same time as thousands of citizens are unemployed and whom we must forcibly aid.

Many Portuguese are going through situations of great difficulty, situations that their parents never came across and never even thought they would have to face.

In times such as these, the risk exists of allowing ourselves to become despondent due to dismay and pessimism, to be set upon by feelings of fear and frustration, uncertain as to where our future lies and that of our offspring.

So absorbed are we by the current difficulties that we very easily may lose the sense of the future,

Portuguese,

As difficult as the present may be, we cannot abdicate from a course that we can be used to guide us, a national strategy that anticipates the challenges we will be facing in the medium and long term.

If we do not know what we require for tomorrow, little good will come from the sacrifices we have to go through today. Our sacrifices must have a purpose, a sense, a raison d’être. We are not going through difficulties just to correct the errors of the recent past, but also to establish a course for the future.

My belief, as I have previously referred, is that it is the duty of the President of the Republic to point out the paths for the future, the guiding lines that give rise to a wide consensus. In the terms of the Constitution, the President of the Republic must place himself above party politics, above the day-to-day political controversy, since only thus can he moderate conflict, promote consensus, and act with exemption and impartiality, safeguarding the higher national interest.

On the day that we celebrate the Republic, I want to speak directly to the Portuguese and also call upon all politicians and social agents, in order that everybody is mustered around a target that belongs to us all. This target is called the future.

The future is not a promise. The future is there, amongst us, it is already here. It is represented by our Country’s young people. Portugal’s young people are, undoubtedly, the most qualified generation of its History. Many of our young people stand out at international levels, compete with the best in the world. They are called upon to carry out the highest offices in the most diversified sectors, they are distinguished by the quality of their work in the top research centres. In several parts of the universe, and particularly in European Union and Portuguese speaking countries, we find qualified and talented young people, a surprise to all, and that leave us Portuguese filled with pride due to their dynamism and capabilities, to their ambition and wish to conquer.

In order that Portugal had available human assets with increased quality, a large investment was carried out throughout decades. It is important that we are conscious, and that we are able to recognize, the progress reached by education in Portugal. The extension of the pre-school network, the broadening of obligatory schooling, the increase in the attendance of secondary and higher education and the level of social and multicultural cohesion we have achieved in our schools are realties that must be emphasized.

Such progress was achieved thanks to the investments laid by successive governments, and with the growing and decisive involvement of the local authorities and institutions of social solidarity, but also due to the drive of Portuguese families, who dedicated a considerable share of their personal and financial efforts to the increase of the level of education and to the improvement in the qualification of their offspring.

Lately, some sectors of Portuguese society have become imbued with the idea that qualification and educational training are of little or no use to achieve professional success. Although it must be recognized that there are, in effect, many qualified young people that are facing the scourge of unemployment, the question that must be placed is to know if, in case they had no qualifications, would they have greater professional success or better access to the labour market. The answer is clearly in the negative.

In this stage of our national life, it is normal that many young people, deluded with the lack of opportunity to show what they’re worth, decide to depart to other destinations, searching for the just recognition of their merits.

We live in a free country, in which each one can choose his own way, impelled by the ambition to show off his talents and provide free rein to his dynamism.

Searching for a better future in our destinations is a historical feature of our people. In the sixties of last century, thousands of Portuguese decided to emigrate, pursuiting freedom and better living conditions. It is thus not surprising that, also among the newer generations, many think of leaving the Country.

Portugal has today a new Diaspora. I was anyway able to ascertain, in several places, the admirable way in which the old and the new Diaspora were able to meet and fraternize, united as they are by a common link, that of being Portuguese.

However, we cannot throw away the investment laid on this new generation of Portuguese.

The Country is duty bound to provide them with the conditions required for them to bring their capabilities to fruition here as well as to show off their value. A value that is recognized across our borders, born from the will of our young people to triumph and from the educational investment laid out for them. This investment cannot go to waste, it must have a return.

It is immediately important that the youths who go abroad do not lose contact with their Country or the wish to return one day.

It is also important that they become true ambassadors of Portugal in the countries where they settle down and where they prosper. It is fundamental that everybody is aware that the value of those young people is also a reflection of their country of origin.

Wherever a top scientist or a successful entrepreneur is present, it is essential that it be known that they are Portuguese, that it was in Portugal that they attained their training and their wish for advance.

But what is primarily important is, doubtlessly, to create conditions for the young people of the new Diaspora to return to their Country. We cannot deny them the right to set off searching for a better future, but it is our duty to do all we can for them to return and contribute towards a better future for their Country.

With the knowledge they received in Portugal, with the experience and opening out to the world acquired in foreign parts, these young people have an absolutely uncommon and unique potential, which we cannot be allowed to waste.

A country cannot waste the potential of its young people. That would mean losing its energy, its capacity for renewal, its sense of continuity and of the future. We cannot allow the prevalence of the idea of a postponed generation.

A generation that has no future in its country will have great difficulty in caring for its parents, and an even greater difficulty in helping to invert the fall in the birth rate.

The low birth rate and its demographic, social and economic consequences are possibly the greatest challenge that Portugal is facing in the long term, and to which I must alert the Portuguese.

To postpone the commitment with youth is, for this reason, to postpone the future. For much too long, Portugal was a Country deluded by the short term, which in some way or another allowed itself to be smudged by froth, living the present without caring for the future. Times of crisis are, anyway, a privileged occasion to rethink ourselves collectively, to find paths for the future that gain the consensus of politicians and social agents and that muster the civil society.

At this stage, we must postpone grandiose works and large ventures. But we cannot mortgage the future, compromising the investment in the education of our children and young people. This investment must be selective, rational, financially rigorous, guided by priorities, materialized through a coherent policy that the Portuguese are aware of.

We are facing great challenges. Some which unfortunately remain, such as the case of school’s fall out. In line with the data published in the last OECD annual report on Education, only 52% of the Portuguese population between the ages of 25 and 34 completed secondary education, which places our Country in 33rd amongst 36 countries.

The extension of obligatory schooling until the 12th year will thus demand a supplementary effort from students and their parents, as well as an adaptation of schools and teachers.

The challenge of the quality of learning renews itself with the increase in the number of school years. Quality learning, accessible to all, is the best guarantee of equality of opportunities, the key to a fair country. Nobody can be left behind.

Education continues the best investment that anyone can lay on his future, proven anyway by many and diverse international studies.

The intangible features of Education must be valued. Families, children and youths must understand that it is always worth while to learn, to work with effort and dedication, to search for excellence. We cannot allow the idea to become installed that success may be reached by other means, that studying is not worth while, since academic qualifications are no guarantee for a better professional future.

It is true that the high rate of unemployment that is recorded today amongst young people, including the better qualified, contributes towards such a perception. But never let it be thought that it is with lower qualification that more employment is obtainable.

As such, we are all called upon to reflect about the school we want. A reflection on the learning models, on the skills and knowledge that better answer the complex challenges of today’s world and better prepare young people to face them. In short, in what way can a school contribute towards a greater employability of our young people and for education to become a driving force for competitiveness and creation of wealth in our country?

The truth is that we have to work more and better in the liaison between learning and professional life, in the connection between acquired knowledge and skills with the of the economy and of enterprises, subject to an increasing international competition.

A greater link between schools and enterprises, throughout the different levels of teaching, is a path that must be deepened.

Students must be prepared throughout their schooling for a more demanding environment. But it is essential that a culture of freedom and responsibility becomes cemented within students. Young people must be conscious that no one may replace them in their duties and in their legitimate ambitions for self fulfilment.

In its turn, teacher’s role must be valued and dignified. The recognition of the central action of teachers is not only based on tangible factors. It does however presume the valuation of the school, linked with the families and the local authorities, as a privileged agent in the building of the future. Schools must be looked upon as an area of demand and opportunities. If we want a better future, we must have the ambition to be better in the future.

In order to reach this objective, I insist, the role of teachers must be recognized and supported. On this October 5, anniversary of a Republic that was distinguished by its pedagogical matrix, I want to express my public recognition to the teachers that dedicate their drive as builders of the future. To all of them, my best thanks. On behalf of today’s Portugal, but also on behalf of the Portugal of tomorrow.

It is true that several structural changes in Portuguese society, in which the lower birth rate stands out, will be reflected in the size of the teaching staff. This is a quantitative issue that, however, does not diminish the importance of the qualitative features, neither the imperative need of a consistent stake on the quality of learning.

I well know that difficult times are times of containment. With less, we have to achieve more. More and better.

The duties of teachers greatly overcome the strict teaching activity. The teacher’s network, disseminated throughout the Country, allows the detection of shortages, and brings out cases requiring the State’s intervention and support.

Teachers also have a central role in linking with the civil society, especially with the families. The future of Education depends upon the participation of the community in the life of the school and on deep bonds between family, teachers and students. In times of crisis, this connection has to be still stronger. In times of crisis, these are the links, the closest links, that are ever present and most important in our lives, and that must come about by bringing together the Portuguese.

At times, we forget that many of the more developed countries are so because their communities comprised, many years ago, constant social practices of valuing Education and this is what sustained their development throughout time.

At a time overburdened by the pressure of the immediate and by the fear for the lack of many of the material goods to which we became used, we cannot forget the value of education. We have, anyway, the republican imperative of recalling it and of placing it high in the rank of priorities, not just of the politically responsible, but of the whole of Portugal.

For this reason, I appeal, from here, today, to the young. In spite of the difficulties, do not fail to place a stake on your education. Nobody repents from being better qualified, culturally improved, better informed.

The battle for education is the grand republican cause of this millennium. We must look towards the future, we must not allow ourselves to be circumscribed by the immediacy of a very difficult present.

If we look to the future that we must now build, Portugal will be a better and fairer country.

Thank you