The Prime Minister says that neither generational distance nor the “evident ideological difference” prevent him from recognizing Mário Soares’ contribution to the history of Portugal, “namely the tireless defense of freedom, democracy, human rights and European integration “.
The Prime Minister expressed respect for Mário Soares’ political legacy, gratitude for his contribution to democracy and admiration for his political courage, on the occasion of the centenary of his birth, this Friday.
“On the centenary of Mário Soares, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the 25th of April, I express respect for his political legacy, gratitude for his contribution to democracy and admiration for his political courage”, writes Luís Montenegro, in an article published in the Público newspaper, entitled “Mário Soares is Democracy and Politics”.
Montenegro reported having grown up hearing about the Fonte Luminosa rally in the summer of 1975, and remembered the “speech for history” made on that occasion by the former general secretary of the PS, in which he appealed to the Portuguese not to be afraid.
“Faced with the totalitarian threat that hovered over the path to democracy in our country, Mário Soares expressed the feeling of the vast majority of the Portuguese people”, highlighted the prime minister.
The head of the Government highlighted Soares’ fight “against extremism, for democracy, which would prevail on the 25th of November and would be consolidated in the 1976 Constitution and its 1982 revision”.
“In those years, with Francisco Sá Carneiro, Ramalho Eanes, Diogo Freitas do Amaral and Álvaro Cunhal, each with their respective visions and merits, he wrote the founding and structuring pages of Portuguese democracy”, he considered.
Montenegro adds that neither generational distance nor the “evident ideological difference” prevent him from recognizing Mário Soares’ contribution to the history of Portugal, “namely his tireless defense of freedom, democracy, human rights and European integration”.
“A constant throughout his life, as a lawyer, parliamentarian, minister, Prime Minister and President of the Republic, which, with elementary justice, makes him one of the main people responsible for inscribing those values in contemporary Portugal”, he highlights.
Montenegro remembers the former Prime Minister and President of the Republic as a “politician through and through”com “a remarkable political flair and capacity for resistance”.
“It was at the head of the Government that he most demonstrated pragmatism, whether in alliances with opponents, or by sacrificing popularity and electoralism in the face of the need for the two requests for external aid that reality imposed and the execution of the respective programs that the sense of responsibility determined. And, later, in support of the 1989 constitutional revision, in which he placed national interests above partisan and personal differences.
The Prime Minister says he holds “with high democratic value the kind words of recognition in the performance of parliamentary leadership” that he addressed to him when they crossed paths, “at the time of the Government that recovered Portugal after the third bailout and that he so unjustifiably criticized” .
And the article ends by quoting words from Mário Soares, “always current”:
“You have to trust in the Portuguese people. I trust in the Portuguese people and in the genius of the Portuguese people. A people who have the history that Portugal has and who did what they did, including the revolution of the 25th of April, which achieved all its objectives , a country that manages to have the best relations with Africa and the former Portuguese colonies.
This Friday, the Assembly of the Republic evokes the figure of the historic socialist leader Mário Soares, who On Saturday I would have turned 100with the same model as the session that marked November 25, 1975, with military honors and closed by the President of the Republic.
