Former president Cavaco Silva lamented this Tuesday, October 22, the death of Francisco Pinto Balsemão, recalling that the Grand Cross of the Order of Freedom awarded to him was the “maximum expression of gratitude” for his contribution to the country.
In a statement sent to Lusa, the former president highlights the contribution of the founder of the Social Democratic Party and former prime minister to Freedom and Democracy in Portugal, which is why he decided to award him the decoration.
Recalling his boldness and pioneering spirit in free media, Cavaco Silva highlights that Pinto Balsemão was “also a fundamental businessman for press freedom in the country, as founder of Expresso and SIC”.
“A pioneer in free media, even before Freedom took hold, Pinto Balsemão showed boldness in the face of the old regime”, writes the former president, highlighting that “the founding of the then Popular Democratic Party, on May 6, 1974, alongside Sá Carneiro and Magalhães Mota, will remain as a legacy for the history of our Democracy”.
In Pinto Balsemão’s activity as prime minister and leader of the PSD, Cavaco Silva highlights “his commitment to the constitutional review of 1982 and the negotiations for Portugal’s accession to the European Economic Community”.
“In this hour of sadness, I send your family, in my name and that of my wife, my most sincere condolences and I bow to your memory”, concludes the former president.
Francisco Pinto Balsemão, former leader of the PSD, former prime minister and founder of Expresso and SIC, died on Tuesday at the age of 88.
The news of the death of the PSD’s number one activist was conveyed by the social democratic president and prime minister, Luís Montenegro, during a meeting of the party’s national council, in Lisbon.
Balsemão was the founder, in 1973, of the weekly newspaper Expresso, still during the dictatorship, of SIC, the first private television in Portugal, in 1992, and of the media group Impresa.
In 1974, after the 25th of April, he founded, with Francisco Sá Carneiro and Magalhães Mota, the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), later the Social Democratic Party PSD. He headed two governments after the death of Sá Carneiro, between 1980 and 1983, and was, until now, a member of the Council of State, a consultative body for the President of the Republic.