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Lisbon welcomes Portugal, this year, in the month of June, the month of the city’s festivities. It welcomes us all on the occasion of the Commemorations of the National Day of Portugal, Camões and the Portuguese Communities.

Having known many cities during my life, it is with pride and affection that I greet, on this day, the capital that welcomed me, 55 years ago, as a student arrived from the Algarve.

Privileged by its geography, located where land ends and the sea opens up, many departures were viewed from the Lisbon docksides. Many Portuguese tears have fallen on the salt of all the seas of the world. But strong communities are able to live in hardier times. And these communities are the stronger the better they are able to render the uncertainties of the present in hopes for the future.

The festivities and popular parades of the ancient Lisbon quarters have enlivened this city for decades. Associations and collectives were born from this wish to celebrate life, groups that join together Lisbon inhabitants of all ages, links of the collective fabric that muster bonds and develop the spirit of solidarity.

Lisbon’s local authorities also deserve greetings, for the work they have carried out on behalf of their dwellers and because they provided examples to the whole of the Country, by taking the initiative to reorganize to better serve their citizens.

I am grateful to the Lisbon City Council, represented by the Honourable Mayor, for the hospitality with which it welcomes these celebrations and for its collaboration, in 2012, in the commemoration of the National Day of Portugal.

This is the city with the soft light that fascinates poets and seduces the travellers that visit it for the first time. Within the multiple shades of clarity, the unforgettable Lisbon light surprises through its contrasts. Cosmopolitan and village-seeming, traditional and avant-garde, Lisbon is, simultaneously, an ancient urban location and a young city, a city that should attract young people and grant them conditions to settle here. As a trading burg it is also a capital of service providers. A city with vegetable gardens within, Lisbon is equally an area of tourism and leisure.

These contrasts originate from that distant day when earthquakes battered the ancient city. Narrow and dark alleys were replaced by straight lines, planned by enlightenment. In downtown Lisbon spaces were opened to light. The city was reborn from ashes becoming another, much different from what it previously was. But in this contrast between the ancient and the new somewhat remained untouched: the spirit of Lisbon. Lisbon citizens, in those days of anxiety and panic, did not lower their arms. With cheer and hope they rebuilt their capital, giving it even greater beauty.

Centuries later, taking advantage of a unique opportunity to uplift the city, the Lisbon dwellers were given back a stretch of the immense river. The eastern side of Lisbon witnessed the building of Nation’s Park, a contemporary marker of the opening of Portugal to the world which, in the western end of the capital has the Belém Cultural Centre as its counterpart.

Lisbon is a city of encounters, in the concourse of peoples and cultures. We shall view these today when we visit the Mouraria Quarter. There, without leaving Portugal, we will travel the whole world, finding people of the most diverse origins, persons and families that turn Lisbon into a rich cultural mosaic and a haven of tolerance. We will also meet “Fado” in Mouraria, a heritage of the whole of Humanity.

Under the arcades of Terreiro do Paço, this square filled with so many memories, we are allowed to evoke other encounters, dialogues which were held throughout centuries between major figures of our History and our Culture. The streets of ancient Lisbon still echo the steps of young Fernando de Bulhões, the future Saint Anthony. From churches built of gold and tiles the baroque oratory of António Vieira can still be heard with his enchanting intonation. In downtown Lisbon the uneasiness of Fernando Pessoa can still be sensed:

“Once again I see you – Lisbon and the Tagus and all of it...”

It is the Tagus that gives Lisbon its unique form. From the Colunas Dock we view the majestic river which opens up to the Atlantic in an extraordinarily beautiful estuary. We view the Castle, which looks down upon us over the housings of the White City.

Every great city has an idea of itself. They strive for their essence. They feed and disclose the spirit that makes them unique.

The essence of Lisbon must be in a culture faithful to its origins, which develop innovation in science, entrepreneurialism in the economy, deepness in spiritual life, excellence in learning.

In our days, a city has to make choices, selecting what is primary for its assertion in confrontation with other urban areas, and determining what is essential for the preservation of the quality of its citizens’ way of life.

A choice must be made where to invest, financially and politically. Once a strategy is defined, a course chosen, it is fundamental that the action of the powers that be is accompanied by an increase in the civic mustering of its citizens. Let us have no doubts: without the active participation of the Lisbon inhabitants, without the permanent involvement of its dwellers, the local authorities of this city will not be able to construe a capital of the future that respects and defends the heritage of the past.

The Lisbon inhabitants are required to take greater care in the protection of their city. An active attitude in the preservation of public areas and collective equipment, greater civility in street safety and cleaning, a knowledgeable drive for the safeguard of the historical and architectural heritage. Without the contribution and the keenness of the Lisbon inhabitants, the City will not fulfil its intent of becoming a great European capital.

Lisbon has a calling. It is a city of the World. It is an ancient capital, aged many centuries. There is no capital in Europe that brings together so many distinct features: the proximity to the ocean and to the beaches, in the Estoril Line or in the other margin of the Tagus, an immense river plated by a unique luminosity, historic markers that are discoverable in every corner. Lisbon is unfolded in the climbing and descending of seven hills that reward us with unique landscapes and glamourous viewpoints.

Other cities may be imposing in their buildings and opulent with the collections of their museums, but none offer, such as Lisbon, conditions for the development of the three essential dimensions of human life: work, leisure and culture. Which cities in the world possess a coast line such as Lisbon’s and, at the same time, such a rich and diversified heritage? In which capitals can their inhabitants or visitors enjoy the proximity of the sea and the presence of a History of so many centuries? Where can we find such harmonious conviviality between the past and the present, between cultures and peoples from so many parts of the world?

Lisbon also benefits from the circumstance of being, simultaneously, an axis of several centricities and a periphery which is a bridge for dialogue with the Atlantic. An agile and open city, its destiny is to transform periphery into centricity, joining that which the sea divides.

A city with immense potential, Lisbon has to invert the logic of depopulation. There is much to be done. Above all we have to look to the future.

The same would say, who knows, the crows of St. Vincent, the patron of this city. In mediaeval symbology, it was assured that the crow, when crowing always means: Tomorrow! Tomorrow!

This, in effect, is so. Tomorrow is what is important, it being certain that tomorrow is built here and now. The future shall be what the Lisbon inhabitants make of it. I am sure that Lisbon, the city of soft light, will bring the light of hope to the destiny of the whole of Portugal.

On the National Day of Portugal, Lisbon with its festivals celebrates what we are at present, commemorates what we were in the past and lightens the future we want to be. Next to the river, dock of hope, Lisbon announces a better and fairer Country.

Thank you